After a decade demurring on the matter, Congress has finally advanced a law to ban themselves from trading stocks following years of members raking in millions using inside information.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday advanced a congressional stock trading ban 8-4 through the panel. The measure will now head to the Senate floor for consideration by the full chamber.
The bill, if passed, would ban members of Congress, their spouses and dependents and the president and vice president from buying or owning stocks and other assets.
If enacted the law would force members to liquidate their assets, with one lawmaker noting how it’d crush people like Donald Trump and prevent him from running for office.
But others in the GOP think it’s necessary to stamp out corruption and stop people like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi from getting blockbuster returns.
‘No Member of Congress should abuse their privilege to profit off of the American people,’ Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, the lead Republican on the bill, exclusively told DailyMail.com in a statement.
Two of the youngest senators helped lead negotiations on the proposed stock trading ban
‘For too long, politicians of both parties have prioritized their stock portfolios over serving those who elected them.’
‘We must put an end to it. This landmark achievement is a strong first step in that direction,’ he said.
At 41-years-old Hawley is one of the youngest members of the upper chamber.
In his push for stamping out stock trading he teamed up with similarly aged Georgia Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, 37, who is leading the measure, to advance the ban.
‘This is a historic moment in efforts to reform the ethics laws that govern Congress,’ Ossoff said after the vote.
‘Georgians overwhelmingly agree that Members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we legislate and while we have access to confidential and privileged information,’ the 37-year-old continued.
The law would be a major departure from the status quo where members are only mandated to disclose trades that amount to more than $1,000 within 30 to 45 days.
Critics have long said that law – the STOCK Act, which bans trading using congressional knowledge – does not go far enough, and the minute fee for breaking the disclosure law, roughly $200 per infraction, is chump change compared to the profit members can turn.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul at a gala in Washington, D.C. She has been a prolific stock trader in recent years, according to her federal disclosures, having bought or sold $100 million in securities since 2020
Sen. Josh Hawley speaks at a press conference announcing the congressional stock trading ban on Wednesday flanked by Democratic co-sponsors including Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Il., Ossoff and Peters
‘This is the first time that a Senate committee is marking up legislation to tackle this issue,’ Committee Chair Gary Peters, D-Mich., said during the Wednesday meeting where the measure passed.
‘Americans deserve to be confident that their federal elected officials are making decisions that are in the best interests of the public and not their own personal interest.’
During the hearing the four Republicans who voted against the stock ban argued it would dissuade business owners from joining Congress, citing how the bill in its current form would require these entrepreneurs to relinquish their stake in their companies.
Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said the bill was ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ adding its a ‘solution looking for problem,’ noting how insider trading and trading using congressional knowledge are already outlawed.
‘Have you thought about Donald Trump, for instance?’ Romney said during the Wednesday hearing.
‘Under this bill, he couldn’t become president. He’d have to sell all of his Truth Social stock. He’d have to sell all of his private investments.’
Still, Hawley said that Congress is rife with stock trading corruption.
‘Members of Congress are trading daily based on information that the public doesn’t have,’ Hawley said at the hearing. ‘Congress is a rich man’s club.’
He noted how former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has disclosed better profit ‘returns than anybody in America.’
Sen. Mitt Romney said the law would deter businessmen, like Trump, from running for office
According to data compiled by Quiver, Pelosi’s net worth has doubled in the past decade from $123 million in 2014 to nearly $250 million in 2024
Quiver Quantitative’s congressional trading dashboards highlight the portfolios of politicians
Pelosi and her husband Paul have seen their net worth more than double over the last decade, according to data from Quiver Quantitative, a congressional money tracker.
Their data shows Pelosi’s net worth has doubled in the past decade from $123 million in 2014 to nearly $250 million in 2024.
It should be noted that Paul Pelosi works in venture capital and is credited with making all of the trades revealed in his wife’s disclosures.
Still, critics say that family members should also be banned from trading given their proximity to congressional secrets.
Pelosi, according to disclosures, has purchased at least $3.93 million worth of securities so far in 2024, much of it in tech, with specific trades in Palo Alto Networks and Forge Investments – a firm that allows investors to get a piece of private companies like OpenAI – of which she disclosed purchasing between $1 – $5 million worth of shares.
‘According to our estimates, Nancy Pelosi has the sixth highest trade volume in Congress over the last year,’ Quiver Quantitative co-founder Christopher Kardatzke told DailyMail.com.
‘Pelosi doesn’t sit on any House technology committees, but she does represent a district in California which covers San Francisco, so obviously there’s kind of a question there whether she gets any sort of insights from that position that she holds.’
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has made tens of millions of dollars of profit in office, according to data compiled by Quiver Quantitative
The Pelosis at a party in Beverly Hills, California, in March 2024
Paul Pelosi, shown here, files all of the trades in his name. Since 2020, the Pelosis have traded around $100 million in volume, both buying and selling
‘The volume is just crazy. It’s often trades of millions of dollars of options or tens of millions of dollars of stock. So obviously that’s a lot of volume,’ Kardatzke said. ‘With Pelosi, it seems like much more intentional, large large bets on particular companies, largely focused in tech.’
Though she does not disclose trade very often, Pelosi does report trades worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars when she does.
Republicans have also profited handsomely while in office.
Romney, for example, has increased his estimated net worth from $178 million in 2017 to $245 million in 2024, according to Quiver Quantitative.
And a congressional stock trading ban is widely seen as popular among voters.
A 2023 survey from the University of Maryland found that 86 percent of voters were in favor of enacting such a ban.
Now it is up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to bring up the bill before the entire chamber.
