Congressman Krishnamoorthi Leads Seven House Democrats In Calling On Speaker McCarthy to Bring Legislation to House Floor to Ban Stock Trading By Members of Congress

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08) and seven other Members of the House sent a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy requesting the Speaker to bring legislation to ban the trading of stocks by Members of Congress to the House floor for a vote as soon as possible. The letter, cosigned by Reps. Craig (MN-02), Golden (ME-02), Kim (NJ-03), Neguse (CO-02), Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Porter (CA-47), and Spanberger (VA-07), follows the Speaker's July 2022 commitment to such a vote when he announced, "What I've told everybody, we will come back and we will not only investigate this, we will come back with a proposal to change the current behavior [stock trading]."

"We, the undersigned, were leaders on this issue in the 117th Congress with the introduction of several bipartisan and bicameral proposals to implement reforms regarding Members of Congress' stock trading practices," the Members wrote. "Last Congress, we led various legislative efforts to reform stock trading practices by Members of Congress, including, but not limited to the Ban Conflicted Trading Act (H.R. 1579), the TRUST in Congress Act (H.R. 336), the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act (H.R. 6678), the STOCK Act 2.0 (H.R. 6694), the No Option for Stock Trading and Ownership as a Check to Keep Congress Clean Resolution (H.Res. 873), and the Restoring Trust in Public Servants Act (H.R. 6844). These efforts would have helped regain public trust in Congress and ensure that Members, their families, and staff do not improperly utilize their positions for personal gain."

The letter urges Speaker McCarthy to ensure the following provisions are included in any comprehensive stock trading ban considered in the 118^th Congress:

1. Cover all Members of Congress, their spouses, and dependents under 18;
2. Prohibit covered persons from owning or trading securities, commodities, futures, derivatives, options, or other similar financial assets, including where such investments are traded through an investment vehicle that the covered person controls;
3. Require covered persons to either divest prohibited investments within 120 days of the effective date, place such investments in a Qualified Blind Trust, or diversify such investments by placing them in widely held, diversified mutual or exchange-traded funds, or U.S. Treasury bills, notes, or bonds;
4. Qualified Blind Trusts must be truly blind;
5. Stipulate clear enforcement mechanisms and penalties that are sufficient to ensure Member compliance;
6. Omit any gimmicks, carveouts, or exemptions that undercut the purpose of this legislation; and,
7. Does not delay the effective date beyond what is reasonably necessary to implement the bill.

To read the full letter, click here.