A growing number of lawmakers are joining the chorus calling for legislation to restrict members of Congress from owning or trading stocks.
Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Republican Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) are the latest to urge the consideration of legislation to block what they called the "inappropriate" stock trades made by members of Congress.
The lawmakers support for tighter guardrails comes as two bills introduced in Congress begin to pick up steam. Senators Jon Ossof (D-Ga.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) each have proposed bills that make it illegal for members of Congress to own individual stock outside of a blind trust.
Amidst calls for reforms to ensure that lawmakers aren’t trading on their insider knowledge, news organizations led by Business Insider found late last year that 55 members of Congress have violated the very law Congress itself passed to stop insider trading and prevent conflicts of interest. The members of Congress failed to report their stock transactions as is mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act.
A key provision of the STOCK Act mandates that lawmakers publicly, and quickly, disclose any stock trades made by themselves, a spouse or a dependent child.
But many members of Congress have not fully complied with the law, Business Insider reported. Violators face a fine, “but the penalty is usually small—$200 is the standard amount—or waived by House or Senate ethics officials,” the media outlet said.
Spanberger has thrown her support behind the bill introduced by Ossoff. His bill, the "Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act,” would require congressional lawmakers and their families to put stocks in blind trusts to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
Hawley’s bill, called the "Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act,” would also require lawmakers and family members to use blind trusts.
"When we’re going to briefings about issues that might be percolating in the world or when we’re voting on legislation that could potentially move markets, it just seems inappropriate to me that we currently have the ability to be able to buy or sell stocks that may or may not be associated with those decisions," Spanberger told NBC News in an interview yesterday.
Roy also told the news outlet that legislation is needed to clamp down on on lawmaker conflicts of interest. "We’re voting on this stuff every single day. And yet people are buying and selling stocks or buying and selling Pfizer while we’re in the middle of the pandemic, like, how is that OK?" Roy told NBC News.
"I just think the American people are kind of tired of the games up here on both sides of the aisle, and they just want to see us do our job, come up here as committed public servants and not get rich day trading," Roy said.