Several House lawmakers are urging leadership to take action on legislation that would ban stock trading by members of Congress.
“We the undersigned…have introduced and championed various strong proposals to end insider trading by Members of Congress,” the lawmakers wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “As the leaders on this issue in Congress, we urge you to heed the following bipartisan principles and work with our offices to ensure any bill being considered on this issue is as strong as possible and also has the votes to pass both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.”
They seek reform legislation prohibiting all Members of Congress, their spouses, and dependents under 18 from owning or trading securities, commodities, futures, derivatives, options, or other similar financial assets, including where such investments are traded through an investment vehicle that the covered person controls. Further, among other principles, the covered individuals should either divest of these prohibited investments within 120 days of the effective date; place them in a Qualified Blind Trust; or diversify them by placing them in widely held, diversified mutual or exchange-traded funds, or U.S. Treasury bills, notes, or bonds.
The letter was signed by U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-CA), Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Katie Porter (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Jared Golden (D-ME), and Angie Craig (D-MN).
“Collectively, we have introduced nearly all of the bills in Congress on this issue, including H.R.1579, the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, H.R.336, the TRUST in Congress Act, H.R. 6678, the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act, H.R. 6694, the STOCK Act 2.0, H.Res. 873, the No Option for Stock Trading and Ownership as a Check to Keep Congress Clean Resolution, and H.R. 6844, the Restoring Trust in Public Servants Act,” they wrote. “However, in the service of our constituents and to restore trust in our public institutions, we are working together to synthesize our respective legislation into a single, bipartisan legislative framework, and as part of that work, we have established a set of shared principles that have guided our own efforts to find consensus and develop a broader legislative framework.”