WASHINGTON – House Republican leadership is facing bipartisan pressure to call for a vote on banning congressional stock trading as the House Administration Committee held a hearing on the topic Wednesday.
“Mark my words, a bill will come to the floor,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said during a press conference before the hearing.
Passed in 2012, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge or STOCK Act requires members of Congress and other government officials to report financial transactions exceeding $1,000 within 45 days. It also prohibits insider trading, or buying stocks based on access to confidential information.
But Fitzpatrick is part of a coalition of lawmakers who say the STOCK Act hasn’t been enforced. For years, they’ve advocated for alternative legislation with stronger restrictions and enforcement on stock trading.
Members from both parties have introduced a total of 25 such proposals in the current 119th congressional term.
“People often want to talk about all the partisan divides,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who shared a fist bump with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) during the press conference. “There are plenty of those. There are also these areas where there is true work.”
And Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said Tuesday she planned to file a discharge petition to force a vote if the House does not start the markup process on a bill Wednesday.
Yet sentiments inside the hearing room remained partisan.
Ranking member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) pointed to President Donald Trump’s recent purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery bonds amid the bidding war for the media conglomerate. Morelle said Trump would profit from a merger that raises bond prices.
“Why should the president enrich him or herself to rig the rules of the game while everyday Americans are struggling with the cost of living?” Morelle said.
Other House Democrats, including Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said Trump reaps profit from his proposed tariffs. Experts say the tariffs inflicted uncertainty on markets worldwide.
Torres said such insider knowledge trading extended to others in the administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who sold Trump Media shares the day Trump announced tariffs that caused a stock market drop.
“As head of the Department of Justice and a close friend of President Trump, she had access to information that working families in my district could never dream of having,” Torres said.
Republican members on the committee countered by invoking Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) stock trading portfolio, which has caused controversy throughout her decades-long career.
“It’s critical that all members are held to the same standard, whether they are a first term member or a certain former Speaker of the House, who I would know has not been mentioned once by the Democrat members of this committee,” Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) said.
During his remarks, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) unveiled a poster that read, “The Pelosis profited $130 million over their time in Congress.”
Still, like several of his colleagues, he circled back to bipartisan messaging.
“There are egregious examples on both sides of the aisle,” Murphy said.
Committee chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) said he felt the hearing was productive after it had ended. But he did not say whether there would be a markup on a STOCK Act alternative anytime soon.
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) said it’s possible the hearing is part of a “delaying tactic” to discuss a stock trading ban without bringing a vote to the floor. That effort, he said, is also bipartisan.
“The opponents are quiet,” Magaziner said. “They don’t get in front of the cameras and say, ‘No, we want to keep trading stocks.’ But they are in the ear of leadership on both parties.”
