Bipartisan bill would ban members of Congress from trading stock
A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday struck a𓆏 deal on new legislation that bans members of Congress from trading stock.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Jon Ossoff of Georgia in pushing the new bill — following a string of failed efforts to prevent lawmakers from gaining an alleged advantage over the general public.
“Congress should not be here to make a buck,” Hawley 🍃(R-Mo.) said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “There is no reason why members of Congress ought to be profiting off of the information that o𒈔nly they get.”
The , their spouses and their dependent children, as well as the preside🌊nt and vice president, from buying and 𝔉selling stocks during their time in office.
It w😼ill be introduced later this month in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
If passed, the bipartisan bill would immediately ban members of Congress from trading stocks and give them 90 days to sel💝l their existing stocks.
Starting March 2027, the bill would prohibit representatives’ spouses and dependent children from trading stocks and requ𓄧ire the president, vice president and members of ಞCongress to divest from any covered investments.
The p🦄enalty for not divesting investments would be either the representative’s montꦍhly salary or 10% of the value of each asset in violation, whichever is higher.
The proposal piggybacks off of the STOCK Act – existing legislation that prohibits insider trading among members of Congress – and proposes an amendment to increase penalties fo💜r STOCK Act violations.
The bill is part of a longtime battle to ban members of Congress from s💞tock trading amid claims that representatives have an unfair advantage when stock trading because of their access to confidential informatio🎐n.
“Why should members of Congress be spending their time day trading rather than focusing on the priorities theไ American people sent us here to achieve and focus on?” Hawley said.
Ossof👍f has pushed for similar stock trading bans since he first joined the Senate ꧂in 2021.
Call🧜s to ban stock trading among members of Congress grew during the pandemic, when several in the early d🌼ays of the crisis just before the market crashed.
The Department of Justice launched a probe into the trades, though no charges were made and the matter was cl🔜osed.
Then, form❀er Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped her opposition to the stock trading ban before the 2022 midterm elections.
Pelosi – whose husband Paul Pelosi is a millionaire invest��or – ini﷽tially opposed the ban.
Hawley introduced a similar stock trading ban in early 2023 called the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities🌃 and Investments Act – or PELOSI Act.
