A Florida Republican congresswoman is seeking to force members of the House of Representatives to go on record as to where they stand regarding banning stock trading by House lawmakers and their Senate counterparts.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has been collecting signatures for a discharge petition to force a House floor vote on stock-trading legislation sponsored by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.
“Members of Congress should be banned from trading individual stocks because their access to privileged, nonpublic information creates unavoidable conflicts of interest that erode public confidence in government,” Luna said in a statement shared with The Daily Signal.
“As lawmakers, we receive classified briefings, shape economic policies, and interact with industry leaders, giving us insights that can influence stock prices,” the Florida lawmaker explained, adding:
Even if no laws are broken, the appearance of profiting from this access fuels distrust among Americans. The American people do not trust the U.S. government, and this is a step forward to building that trust.
Burchett’s bill would prohibit a member of Congress, his or her spouse, or their dependent children from owning “an interest in or trade (except as a divestment) any stock, bond, commodity, future, or other form of security, including an interest in a hedge fund, a derivative, option, or other complex investment vehicle.”
The bill does not prohibit members of Congress or their immediate family members from holding widely held investment funds so long as they are diversified and do not lend themselves to a conflict of interest.
The issue of members of Congress potentially benefiting from insider knowledge about the economy goes back decades, but it took on particular salience during the COVID-19 era, when some members appeared to financially benefit even as they received closed-door meetings that discussed the virus. Then-Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., bought stock in a personal proactive equipment company the same day he received a classified briefing on the virus.
Then-Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who was at the time chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in mid-February before the stock market declined precipitously in March. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has also been widely criticized by Republicans for stock trading by her family.
In April, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., reintroduced the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, which would prohibit sitting members of Congress and their spouses from holding or trading individual stocks while in office.
“Americans have seen politician after politician turn a profit using information not available to the general public. It’s time we ban all members of Congress from trading and holding stocks and restore Americans’ trust in our nation’s legislative body,” Hawley said in a statement about his bill.
An altered form of the legislation that dropped the partisan acronym and expanded the ban to the president and vice president beginning after President Donald Trump leaves office was passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Hawley was joined by all the Democrat members in voting the bill out of committee. Republicans criticized the bill for a variety of reasons, including its exemption for Trump, and argued that it would disincentivize some Americans from holding office, adding that it was unduly rushed through.