Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades, but Some Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling

On paper the idea of banning congressional stock trades has all the ingredients for success supermajority encouragement in polls bipartisan sponsors and masses backing from House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La Everything in Washington however is not as it seems Ahead of a House committee hearing on the flaws of the current rules on congressional stock trades sponsors of the leading adjustment proposal were split on its chances Several of the bill s backers were even divided as to whether the hearing itself represented a genuine step forward or potentially a delay tactic from House leadership Selected proponents worry Johnson scheduled the hearing to placate them while kicking the can down the road on more concrete advancement like marking up and voting on the measure The House speaker has expressed endorsement for a stock trading ban but he also reported that he has sympathy for the counterargument that members need to wheel and deal in stocks in order to promotion their families The speaker could have just gone directly to markup on this bill if he were supportive of it The hearing was positive and everybody was supportive of restricting congressional stock trading activity but it s sort of a delay tactic explained Craig Holman the Capitol Hill lobbyist for the nonprofit good governance group Residents Citizen The speaker could have just gone directly to markup on this bill if he were supportive of it He has expressed promotion of the concept but not the bill itself Johnson s office did not respond to a request for comment Rep Seth Magaziner D-R I hinted that the sponsors would be willing to push for a discharge petition like the one that secured the release of the Epstein files if Johnson does not move fast Make no mistake if this is not a step in the right direction but a delaying tactic then other options will be on the table for how to get this bill to the floor Magaziner explained We are glad to see particular movement but this is we believe just the first step and the other procedures need to come soon Magaziner and his co-sponsors have been fighting for a few form of a stock trading ban for years in the face of mounting evidence that the law on the books has done little to curb self-dealing Current law has two major components a transparency provision requiring that legislators disclose stock trades within days and another measure threatening lawmakers with jail time if they commerce stocks based on insider information Neither part of existing law has teeth spectators communicated the House Administration Committee on Wednesday The disclosure provision is routinely sometimes flagrantly violated by lawmakers who wait months to file disclosures There is no society record of whether they have coughed up the paltry fines Perhaps greater part importantly the law has never triggered the criminal prosecution of a lawmaker accused of insider trading Related How Much Did Congress Make Off Industry Turmoil and Why re They Allowed to Make Anything at All Representatives at the hearing ticked off examples of questionable Congressional traders The husband of Rep Nancy Pelosi D-Calif has drawn widespread attention for his profitable stock deals Former Sen Richard Burr D-N C also executed a suspiciously well-timed sell-off of his holdings before Covid spread widely in the U S The hearing highlighted the flaws of the current system but it did not focus on any of the competing proposals to fix it Magaziner and co-sponsors including Reps Chip Roy R-Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez D-N Y spent months crafting a proposal that could draw encouragement from conservatives and liberals alike They have yet to receive a formal markup hearing that would precede a House floor vote on their bill known as the Restore Trust in Congress Act Rep Anna Paulina Luna R-Fla has threatened to force the bill onto the House floor with a discharge petition the same mechanism that members used to force Johnson s hand on the Epstein files One of the leading Republican co-sponsors of the Restore Trust in Congress Act Rep Brian Fitzpatrick R-Pa seemed far more confident than Magaziner that the bill will get a vote We will get this done this Congress mark my words This bill or a bill will come to the floor Fitzpatrick disclosed Populace Citizen s Holman revealed the bigger obstacle may lie in the Senate where individual members have more sway and a group of Republicans including Sen Ron Johnson R-Wis have expressed their opposition Johnson called one proposed stock trading ban legislative demagoguery Neither of the leading House and Senate bills apply to Trump and his family who continue to trot the globe making lucrative deals in cryptocurrency and real estate Holman stated he hoped that someday the law will be strengthened to address the Trump family s conflicts but he doesn t want to let perfect be the enemy of the good Trump is a concern and he is abusing this extensively Holman stated So at this point a great version would include the president but I know if we do that it ll kill the bill in the House and the Senate with the Republican Congress The post Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades but Selected Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling appeared first on The Intercept