The bipartisan push for a congressional stock trading ban is gaining steam, but lawmakers have yet to settle on the details of a proposal.
The House Administration Committee on Wednesday held a hearing on the matter, putting an issue that has been percolating on Capitol Hill for months back in the spotlight following a government shutdown that derailed much congressional action.
Lawmakers on the panel debated how to strengthen and reform the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a law passed in 2012 that prohibits members of Congress and federal employees from using nonpublic information for private profit.
Dan Savickas, vice president of policy and government affairs at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said during the hearing that the framework in the law “has proved sorely lacking.”
“The STOCK Act does not prevent conflicted trading by members of Congress but merely requires them to report when and if they do so. Even then, many members report after the mandated time periods with little to no repercussions thus far. The American people are left with almost no recourse,” he said.
Lawmakers also aired grievances, arguing that there need to be updates on the reporting and enforcement requirements in the STOCK Act, or a separate ban altogether on members owning individual stock.
Though proposals to implement such a ban have come to the forefront at various points, they’ve mainly been stalled.
In September, for instance, Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) introduced a bill that would prohibit lawmakers, their spouses, dependent children and trustees from “owning, buying or selling individual stocks, securities, commodities, or futures,” with a few exceptions, according to a press release.
The bill would also require current members of Congress to “divest from all covered assets at fair market value” within 180 days and incoming members to do so within 90 days.
A diverse coalition of House Democrats and Republicans, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), have backed the bill. It was referred to the House Administration Committee, but no further action has been taken.
But both lawmakers and outside groups have been putting pressure on House leadership and the House Administration Committee to consider the proposal.
“The American people have made it clear that hearings alone are not enough. We have a strong, enforceable, bipartisan bill to ban stock trading once and for all, and we need Speaker Johnson to bring it to the floor immediately for a vote,” Magaziner wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, along with nine other organizations, also wrote a letter to House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) and ranking member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) urging the panel to hold a meeting to consider the bill.
Luna told The Hill she plans to introduce a discharge petition aimed at forcing floor action on the bill after the House returns from Thanksgiving break, if the House committee doesn’t announce it is taking action on it by Friday.
“I think there’s a lot of self-interested narcissists … running Washington that want to get rich while the American people suffer, and that’s why you’re seeing such strong opposition against this. So, I’m calling out the bulls—, and I really don’t care who I piss off,” she said.
But even if the bill gets through the House, it still must pass the Senate. Whether lawmakers in the upper chamber will support the measure is uncertain.
“I don’t think it’ll go to the president and [get] signed into law of any consequence. We might pass something, might prove me wrong, and something passes, but I just don’t see it. I don’t see it,” said Burchett, acknowledging the legislative hurdles.
House Democrats said during the hearing on Wednesday that they’d want any solution on the issue to extend to the executive and judicial branches.
“Members of Congress, the Trump administration and their relatives should not have a blank check to use privileged information to cash in while working families continue to struggle,” Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said.
Morelle told The Hill in a statement that he supports a stock trading ban for members of Congress, the president, the vice president and the Supreme Court.
It’s not something that the White House likely will be in favor of, though.
President Trump attacked Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in July after Hawley joined Democrats to advance legislation banning members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from holding, buying or selling stock. The bill would have only applied to future administrations.
Burchett said that efforts to include the executive and judicial branches in a ban will “kill” the effort.
“That’s not going to pass. … Let’s get our foot in the door and let’s work it from there,” he said.
Despite the uncertain future of the issue, lawmakers on both sides are pushing for progress on it.
“American people do not trust Congress because we are crooked as a dog’s leg, and they don’t trust us for good reason,” Burchett said.
Morelle said in the statement, “Today’s hearing was an important step in elevating the important issues we need to consider when developing such a ban. The cost of this corruption is hurting everyday Americans and we must act.”
