Congressman Neguse Leads Broad Coalition Urging Action To Ban Members Of Congress From Trading Stocks

Statement

oday, Congressman Joe Neguse led a broad coalition of House and Senate Democrats urging leadership to take up legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stock. Congressman Neguse, alongside Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez introduced a proposal -- the Ban Conflicted Trading Act -- over two years ago, in recent months the idea has grown considerable support.

He was joined at today's event by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03), Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Congresswoman Angie Craig (MN-02).

"We all agree on a fairly simple and straightforward concept, in my view, which is that Members of Congress should be banned from trading stocks. We are elected to serve the people, not stock portfolios," said Congressman Joe Neguse. "We are excited about getting a vehicle to the house floor and ultimately the senate that would accomplish that."

"It just comes down to this, are we here for the purpose of pumping up our personal profit or pursuing the public purpose?" said Senator Merkley. "The American people have doubts when they read studies that say Members of Congress have stock portfolios that perform better than the general public and wonder where they are getting that information from."

"I do not think it is too much to ask that, for us to say, if we want you [voters] to put us in this position of public trust we need to take proactive steps so that no one has even an inkling of doubt in their mind that we are not everyday making a decision in the interest of that public trust, "said Congresswoman Spanberger.

"This isn't just about actual impropriety, but this is about the perception of impropriety," said Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. "We have to be able to assure the American people that [ impropriety is] not happening here and that they don't have to worry about whether they are competing with their Member of Congress' stock portfolio in order to be heard."

"This is about who we stand for. This is about making sure that when we take any action whether it is legislation, whether it's approving budgets, whether it's when we are listening to witnesses, whether we are thinking about padding our pockets or we are thinking about representing the public interest," said Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair, Congresswoman Jayapal.

"When I see people on both sides of the aisle that have lost faith in their government, that have lost faith in the institutions of our democracy, I see one of the biggest challenges that we face in making sure that our democracy continues forward as restoring that trust and showing people that the government works for them," said Congressman Kim. "And if you hold stocks and you sit on committees that do business on those issues there's always going to be that concern"

"If we can't find 535 people in the … The United States of America who are willing to give up their personal stock portfolio in order to serve their constituents then shame on us, "said Congresswoman Craig.

Earlier in the day, the House Administration Committee held a hearing to consider proposals to address unethical stock trading by Members of Congress.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the STOCK Act becoming law. While the STOCK Act has provided valuable transparency as to unethical stock trading by members of Congress, it failed to adequately address rampant conflicted trading within Congress. According to the Campaign Legal Center, in the 117th Congress alone, members of Congress have traded stock worth an estimated $631 million. Recent polling shows that an overwhelming bipartisan majority supports banning members of Congress from trading stocks.