2 Senators Revive Effort to Stop Lawmakers' Stock Trading

Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody on Thursday introduced the legislation Thursday that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks, per WTEN. "There's an American consensus around this, not a partisan consensus, that members of Congress and, frankly, senior members of administrations and the White House, shouldn't be making money off the backs of the American people," Gillibrand said, per the AP.

• The efforts: It's the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that opponents have dismissed as watered down. Trading of stock by members of Congress has been the subject of ethics scrutiny and criminal investigations in recent years, with lawmakers accused of using the information they gain as part of their jobs—often not known to the public—to buy and sell stocks at significant profit. Both parties have pledged to stop stock trading in Washington in campaign ads.

• The bill: The measure being introduced by Gillibrand and Moody is a version of a House bill introduced last year by GOP Rep. Chip Roy and Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner, the AP reports. That proposal, which has 125 cosponsors, would bar members of Congress from buying or selling individual stocks altogether. Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida tried to bypass party leadership and force a vote on the bill. Her push with a discharge petition has 79 of the 218 signatures required, the majority of them Democrats. The Senate bill from Gillibrand and Moody would give lawmakers 180 days to divest their individual stock holdings after the bill takes effect, while newly elected members would have 90 days from being sworn in to divest. Lawmakers would be prohibited from trading and owning certain other financial assets, including securities, commodities and futures.

• GOP version: House Republican leaders are supporting an alternative bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from buying individual stocks but would not require lawmakers to divest from stocks they already own. It would mandate public notice seven days before a lawmaker sells a stock. The bill advanced in committee Wednesday—which Luna called "a win"—but its prospects are unclear.
• Not included: The legislation would exempt the president and vice president, a carveout likely to draw criticism from some Democrats. Similar objections were raised last year over a bill that barred members of Congress from issuing certain cryptocurrencies but did not apply to the president. Gillibrand said the president "should be held to the same standard" but described the legislation as "a good place to start."