For years, lawmakers have tried and failed to ban their fellow members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks. But with a new administration, and an even narrower Republican majority in the House, lawmakers across the political spectrum see an opportunity to get a stock-trading ban passed in the coming year.
Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner and Republican Rep. Chip Roy reintroduced a resolution on Tuesday that would require members of Congress, their spouses and dependents to put assets in a qualified blind trust while in office to prevent insider trading. Another bipartisan initiative — led by Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Cory Mills and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Raja Krishnamoorthi — would prohibit the same group from owning or trading individual stocks.
“There’s no question that people have access to information here that the public doesn’t, that’s why there’s whole markets out there that track members’ trading habits,” Fitzpatrick told NOTUS. “That in and of itself should be a reason to address this, and I think it should have been addressed a long time ago.”