Left and right are joining forces to ban lawmakers from trading stock
[September 04, 2025] By
LEAH ASKARINAM and KEVIN FREKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — An unusual alliance emerged in the House on Wednesday
as lawmakers who agree on little else rallied support for a bill that
would prohibit members of Congress and their families from owning and
trading individual stocks.
The group included darlings of the far right, the left, moderates and
many in between. They gathered to promote a ban that polls well with
voters and appears to be finding new momentum after stalling out in
previous sessions of Congress.
“It’s not every day you see this cast of characters up here,” said Rep.
Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican who represents a perennial
swing district in Pennsylvania. "You’re all smirking out there. That’s a
good thing. It speaks to the power of this cause.”
Congress has discussed proposals for years to keep lawmakers from
engaging in trading individual stocks, nodding to the idea that there’s
a potential conflict of interest when they are often privy to
information and decisions that can dramatically move markets.
A Senate committee has approved legislation from GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of
Missouri that would also extend the prohibition on stock trading to
future presidents and vice presidents — while notably exempting
Republican President Donald Trump. The House bill unveiled this week is
limited to Congress, but the sponsors said they were open to extending
it to the executive branch if enough support emerged.
Under current law, federal lawmakers are required to disclose their
stock sales and purchases. The bill requiring disclosure, The Stock Act,
was signed into law in 2012. At the time, lawmakers and government
watchdogs predicted that public disclosure would shame lawmakers out of
actively buying and selling stock. That hasn’t happened.
The sponsors said they merged their own, individual bills on banning
stocks and came together with a single bipartisan effort. Rep. Chip Roy
of Texas, the bill's lead sponsor, said the group had been meeting for
the last several months, and some sponsors had actually been working on
this for years. About a dozen lawmakers from both parties joined Roy
onstage. It was an unusually festive moment as the partisan lines in
Congress have rarely been sharper.
“I don’t agree with some of these people on anything,” said Rep. Tim
Burchett, a Tennessee Republican often aligned with the the
ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
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Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., speaks during the opening session of
the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) Legislative Conference
March 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
 Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
D-N.Y., followed Burchett to the podium and fist-bumped him when
doing so. She said she felt like the coalition showed how Congress
should actually work. “It feels foreign and it feels alien and it’s
like, what’s going on here?” she said.
While the legislation would not allow lawmakers to own individual
stocks and bonds, they would be allowed to own diversified mutual
funds and ETFs and certain commodities. Lawmakers who currently own
individual stocks and bonds would have 180 days to divest. New
members would have 90 days to divest upon taking office.
The mood was celebratory at Wednesday's unveiling, but even if the
bill were to pass the House, it would face a more difficult climb in
the Senate. At least 60 votes would be needed to advance the
legislation in that chamber and some senators have expressed
concerns about the concept.
Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., acknowledged that members opposed to
banning stocks are “persistent.”
“Those of us who support banning stock trading in Congress are very
vocal in our position, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t
opponents,” Magaziner said.
Some members expressed urgency in moving the bill through the House.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said they have “asked nicely for
leadership to put this on the floor" and set a deadline for the end
of the month before she would seek to force a vote.
A version of the trading ban that advanced out of one Senate panel
was described by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin as
“legislative demagoguery.”
“We do have insider trading laws. We have financial disclosure.
Trust me, we have financial disclosure,” Johnson said. “So I don’t
see the necessity of this.”
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