Key Points
- Sen. Josh Hawley (R-AR) is introducing the “Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act.
- The bill stops members of congress and their spouses (Paul Pelosi) from holding, buying, or selling individual stocks.
- Nancy Pelosi is one of the primary offenders of getting wealthy from insider trading.
At The Drill Down, we’ve covered the Pelosis and their questionable (generous word choice), seemingly unstoppable winning streak when it comes to the stock market. They’re the ‘72 Dolphins of the stock market —but Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) is out to change all that.
Hawley is introducing the “Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act” (not quite as catchy as “STOCK Act” but hopefully much more effective). BITC would, essentially, stop members of congress and their spouses (Paul Pelosi) from holding, buying, or selling individual stocks.
“It’s time to stop turning a blind eye to Washington profiteering,” Hawley says. “Year after year, politicians somehow manage to outperform the market, buying and selling millions in stocks of companies they’re supposed to be regulating. Wall Street and Big Tech work hand-in-hand with elected officials to enrich each other at the expense of the country.”
If the bill were to pass, incoming members of Congress would have six months to divest any forbidden holdings or move them into a blind trust while in office.
According to The Hill, “Members who violate the proposed law would be required to forfeit profits made on their investments to the Treasury. Violators would also lose the opportunity to subtract the losses from those investments on their income taxes and be subject to potential additional fines from congressional ethics committees.”
“If passed, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would conduct an audit of member compliance with the law every two years.”
This legislation is long overdue. Recently, Speaker Pelosi was asked to respond to a bombshell report that found 49 members of Congress and 182 Capitol staffers were late in reporting their 2020/21 stock trades.
“Madam Speaker, Insider just completed a five‑month investigation finding that 49 Members of Congress and 182 senior Congressional staffers have violated the STOCK Act, the insider trading law,” said a reporter. “I’m wondering if you have any reaction to that.”
“No…we have a responsibility to report on the stocks. I’m not familiar with that 5-month review but if people aren’t reporting, they should be,” Pelosi answered.
Real strict, Nancy. You couldn’t pretend for just one moment that you were going to do ANYTHING about these egregious violations —more than 200 cases. What was your response?
“This is a free-market economy. [Members of Congress] should be able to participate in that.”
Ah. Right.
