A Republican congressman this week reported thousands of dollars' worth in stock trades almost one year after the transactions should have been made public under federal law, a financial disclosure shows.
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) revealed in a Sunday filing that between February 2022 and December 2022, he purchased up to $45,000 combined in shares of the department store corporation TJX Companies, Mastercard, and the management consulting company Accenture, as well as sold up to $15,000 in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust, a real estate investment company. The late filing falls in stark contrast to the STOCK Act, which requires lawmakers such as Wittman to disclose securities trades totaling over $1,000 within 45 days.
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"The law that requires members of Congress to disclose financial information is extremely important because it is the only method the public has to determine whether they have a conflict of interest," Kendra Arnold, head of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, an ethics watchdog group, told the Washington Examiner.
The STOCK Act, a transparency law that passed in 2012 and aims to fight conflicts of interest and insider trading, is often violated by politicians — leading to bipartisan watchdogs demanding enforcement. Fines are typically $200 for those who flout the act. The Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan body investigating alleged misconduct, is tasked with referring alleged violations to the House Ethics Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) and counts its ranking member as Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA).
"For instance, if a member makes stock transactions but does not disclose them or does so late, it makes it difficult or impossible to determine whether they used nonpublic information to profit or if personal investments influenced official action," Arnold said. "This is one of the most basic and easiest ethics requirements to follow, and not doing so says a great deal about a member's commitment to ethics, transparency, and the American public."
Wittman's office did not return a request for comment.
He previously told the New York Times that his investments are handled by a financial adviser "to use third-party investment managers who implement trades at their own discretion without my consultation or input." The same report, which detailed apparent conflicts of interest among lawmakers and their stock trades, noted that Wittman has traded shares of defense contractor companies while sitting on the House Armed Services Committee.
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Revelations concerning Wittman's stock trades come weeks after the Washington Examiner reported on how Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) flouted trading disclosure rules by over one year on Aug. 3, 2023, in connection to her spouse's purchase of $29,122 in shares of the private investment banking company Blackstone. Randall Kaplan, Manning's husband, bought the shares on June 10, 2022, and sold them for a roughly $3,300 loss on June 15, 2022, according to a filing.
Wittman has reported almost 60 trades in the last year worth up to $611,000, according to an analysis by Capitol Trades, a stock tracker.