Wall Street Wary: New Push to Ban Congress from Trading Stocks

There is another effort underway to prohibit members of Congress from owning or trading stocks. The latest proposal is called the ETHICS Act, and has modest support but is unlikely to gain any traction in a busy election year. It comes as reports show members of Congress routinely beat the stock market, even in down years. In fact, last year alone lawmakers reportedly made trades worth more than $1 billion, with one Democrat Congressman showing gains of 238%.

While the list of Wall Street profiteers includes both Republicans and Democrats (House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green netted a 122% return last year), one of the worst offenders is former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Research shows Pelosi has made trades netting approximately $100 million since 2019, and she had a 65-percent gain in 2023.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley has been a strong supporter of banning Congress from the stock market. Last year, he introduced what he called the PELOSI Act to do just that. "Nancy Pelosi is the perfect example of what should not be happening in D.C., which is people getting rich in the stock market off of information they know because they're a member of Congress," Hawley tells KTRH's Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Critics of Hawley's bill say a full ban on stock trading goes too far, pointing to the STOCK Act that was passed into law several years ago, which specifically bans Congress from insider trading. But Hawley argues that any trading by a member of Congress is de facto insider trading. "For members of Congress, the briefings that they get, the information they have from hearings, it's information that most Americans don't have," he says.

That is why Hawley is on board with a full ban on stock trading and stock ownership by members of Congress. "If you want to save, fine, put it in a mutual fund like most Americans do," he says.

"When voters send members of Congress to Washington, they expect them to do the people's business," Hawley continues. "Not to be day-trading on the stock market, and not to be using the information that they get from briefings to go and make a quick buck on Wall Street."