Lawmakers urge Speaker Johnson to bring stock trading ban to floor for vote

More than two dozen lawmakers called on House leadership Friday to bring a bill banning members of Congress from participating in the stock market to the floor for a vote.

“This is a critical step to ensure Members of Congress are working for their constituents, not themselves,” the group wrote in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and the top members of the House Administration Committee.

The lawmakers — led by Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) — urged House leaders to progress legislation that would prohibit all members of Congress, their spouses and dependents younger than 18 years old from trading stocks.

The remaining signatories to the letter were mostly Democrats, though one Republican, Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, also signed on.

The push to ban lawmakers from trading stocks reached a new prominence over the past several years after high-profile incidents, but repeated attempts to bring up a bill for a vote have failed.

Specifically, the group called for a ban on “owning or trading securities, commodities, futures, derivatives, options, or other similar financial assets, including where such investments are traded through an investment vehicle that the covered person controls.”

Under such a ban, members and their families would be required to divest from prohibited investments, place them in a blind trust or diversify their investments by placing them in “widely held, diversified mutual or exchange-traded funds, or U.S. Treasury bills, notes, or bonds.”

“There is no shortage of bipartisan legislation ready to be voted on that model this established set of shared principles,” the lawmakers wrote.

“We know that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Members of Congress should not be allowed to trade stock while in office,” they added. “We respectfully urge you to ensure elected officials are held to the highest standard.”