House Republicans removed a ban on congressional stock trading from their own bill, killing the most consequential ethics measure in Congress this session even as polling shows roughly 8 in 10 Americans support the restriction.
The provision would have barred members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from buying and selling individual stocks while in office. Lawmakers currently can trade any publicly listed company — defense contractors, banks, pharmaceutical firms — while writing the laws and setting the budgets that move those share prices.
The move leaves two explanations, and both reflect badly on the chamber. Either Republican leaders never intended to pass a real ban and used the bill as political cover, or a decisive bloc of members refused to give up a personal income stream that has made some of them millionaires.
The timing is hard to ignore. Congress has faced stock-trading scandals in nearly every recent session, from members buying pharmaceutical stocks weeks before COVID-19 lockdowns to lawmakers trading energy shares ahead of committee votes on fossil fuel policy. Then-Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, stepped down as Intelligence Committee chairman in 2020 after selling off holdings worth up to $1.7 million days before the market crashed on pandemic fears. The Justice Department closed its investigation without charges, but the episode pushed the issue into public view.
Democrats are not clean on this either. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, long resisted a trading ban while her husband, Paul Pelosi, actively traded tech stocks — including a well-timed purchase of Nvidia shares worth up to $5 million in 2022, before a federal subsidy vote that lifted chip stocks. Former Representative Tom Malinowski, a New Jersey Democrat, disclosed trades he failed to report on time, drawing a House Ethics Committee review.
Bipartisan proposals have circulated for years. One version, backed by Senators Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Josh Hawley of Missouri, would require members and their spouses to place assets in a qualified blind trust within 90 days of taking office, with penalties equal to the profit from any prohibited trade. Similar bills have died in committee without a floor vote every time.
The practical effect of stripping the ban is that the underlying bill now does far less than its title suggests. Members keep the ability to trade individual securities, disclose those trades under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act — a law that allows up to 45 days to report and carries a $200 fine for late filings — and continue voting on legislation that affects their portfolios.
That 45-day window matters. Under the STOCK Act, a member can buy a stock today, vote on a bill affecting that company next week, and file the disclosure more than a month later. The $200 penalty is less than the cost of a single share of many stocks members hold.
Public pressure has not translated into floor action. A University of Maryland poll found 86% of respondents — including 87% of Republicans — backed a trading ban. The bill now heads forward without the provision that generated that support.
