House Democrats plan to announce a proposal next month to ban lawmakers, their spouses and senior staff from trading stocks, according to Punchbowl News with several sources close to the issue. The bill would force members of Congress, their spouses and senior staff to choose between putting their assets in a qualified blind trust or completely divesting their investment portfolios. Lawmakers, spouses, and staff would still be allowed to hold mutual funds.
The idea of the bill would be to stop insider trading, the illegal practice of trading on the stock exchange to one’s own advantage through having access to confidential information. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed insider trading charges this week against former Indiana congressman Stephen Buyer. Buyer was described as making purchases of Sprint stock in March 2018 just a day after attending a golf outing with a T-Mobile executive who told him about the company’s then-nonpublic plan to acquire Sprint.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said seven months ago she was against the idea of banning lawmakers from trading but Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have supported the effort to curb stock trading.
Paul Pelosi, the Speaker’s husband, recently gained attention for buying stock in Nvidia, a chipmaker company. The purchase comes on the heels of the House considering legislation that would provide subsidies and tax credits worth over $70 billion to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry. Two days ago, Paul Pelosi sold those shares for a loss of $341,365.
Legislation could be introduced in the beginning of September and push through the chamber that month. If it were to pass, it would still have to go through the Senate.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has previously said this is a bipartisan issue. He drafted a similar bill, Banning Insider Trading Act, back in January 2022.
