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Dems Join GOP on Legislation To Stop Lawmakers Spouses From Stock Trading

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Virginia Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger has joined Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas to push legislation that would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks while in office.

“At the heart of the issue: Senators and representatives regularly get classified briefings about subjects that impact the markets and they’re able to use that information, which the rest of the public doesn’t have, to buy, sell, trade, and profit. Spanberger and Republican Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, a co-sponsor of the bill, both said it’s fundamentally unfair and should be criminalized,” News Nation reported. “The legislation would require members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children to put certain investment assets into a qualified blind trust while the member is in office.”

In a statement, Spanberger said: “We are long overdue for a vote on legislation to ban Members of Congress and their spouses from trading individual stocks. Last Congress, we saw the TRUST in Congress Act receives the most bipartisan support of any effort to do so.”

In a letter sent to Pelosi late last year on the measure, Roy slammed Democrats for not moving with any urgency to at least hold a vote on the STOCK Act.

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Roy noted that he’s working with Spanberger on the bill that would prevent lawmakers and members of their families from trading individual stocks.

“As you are aware, the House floor schedule this week contains the ‘Possible Consideration of Legislation Related to the STOCK Act.’ I am glad to see the House finally taking up the idea of reforming policies related to Member stock trading. However, as one of the original sponsors of reform language — notably introducing HR336, the TRUST in Congress Act, some 2 years ago with my Democrat colleague from Virginia, Abigail Spanberger — I was interested to see the ‘final’ language via Jake Sherman’s Twitter account last night,” Roy wrote.

“The state of the House of Representatives is absurd — and that is not a partisan statement,” he continued. “Like virtually every other legislative idea or proposal, we have not had any robust debate on reforms to member stock trading or even a ‘Member Day’ hearing that would allow each member of the House to air individual views on the matter. This complex issue requires thought, debate, amendment, and a full airing in committee to build as much bipartisan agreement as possible rather than the normal cram-down from the top that permeates literally everything we do.”

California Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in particular, has come under fire numerous times for her controversial and well-timed stock trades.

Pelosi turned heads again last month with another conveniently timed stock sale. A sale that Pelosi disclosed in late December shows Pelosi sold around 30,000 shares of Google stock roughly three weeks before the Justice Department and eight states announced an anti-trust lawsuit against Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company.

MoneyWise reported on another instance of a well-timed Pelosi stock trade:

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Nancy Pelosi had originally directed the House Administration Committee to draft legislation back in February, but the release of that draft this fall came at a bit of an awkward time. Just weeks before, she’d faced harsh criticism when her husband, Paul, a venture capitalist, exercised his call options and purchased shares in Nvidia, a manufacturer of graphics cards.

It was right before the Senate was expected to vote on a bipartisan bill that would see domestic chipmakers get a $52 billion subsidy, and the move received significant blowback. That bill ultimately passed in July and, amid the scrutiny, Paul Pelosi sold his holdings in the semiconductor manufacturer at a six-figure loss.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy publicly stated recently that he supports an investigation into the Pelosis stock trading.

“I would look through it,” he said of the Democrat proposal to ban stock trading for spouses of Congress members. “What I’ve told everybody is we will come back, and we will not only investigate this, we will come back with a proposal to change the current behavior. I think we have to do a thorough investigation and look at what is the proper role of members of Congress and what influence they have.”

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