This week, Congress has achieved the seemingly impossible task of bringing forward a contentious bill that could have long-lasting repercussions. In a rare bipartisan move, Congressmen Chip Roy and Democrat Abigail Spanberger have come together on a stocks bill that is sure to anger people like Nancy Pelosi and her husband.
Virginia Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy have taken up a long overdue action to ensure transparency and fairness in Congress. The two representatives are pushing for controversial legislation that, if passed, will effectively ban members of Congress from trading stocks while they are in office. This would deter many congressional officials from attempting to gain personal financial value off of private information obtained through their jobs, thus increasing accountability and mitigating potential insider trading.
Conservative brief reports, Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, is working with Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy to push legislation banning members of Congress from trading stocks.
At the heart of the issue: Senators and representatives regularly receive classified briefings about market-related topics, and they can use that information, which the public lacks, to buy, sell, trade, and profit. According to Spanberger and Republican Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, a co-sponsor of the bill, it’s fundamentally unfair and should be criminalized.
As a result of the legislation, members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children will be required to put certain investment assets into qualified blind trusts while in office.
Here was congresswoman Spanberger on MSNBC discussing the Senator Burr insider trading story.
In an explosive statement recently, the Democrat lawmaker said: “We are long overdue for a vote on legislation to ban Members of Congress and their spouses from trading individual stocks. Last Congress, we saw the TRUST in Congress Act receive the most bipartisan support of any effort to do so. We saw tremendous momentum, we saw growing support in our districts, and we saw growing recognition across the political spectrum that such reform needs to be made now.”
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act in January, in which members of Congress and their spouses will be prohibited from owning or trading individual stocks.
Many House Democrats already support the bill.
It’s about time that a stock trading bill be passed to level the playing field for ordinary Americans. For too long, our elected representatives have had the ability to benefit from laws that they themselves enact – with no regard for how it affects the rest of us. It seems only fair that if we, as citizens, must live within the constraints of regulations set forth by them, then they should be held to the same standards. It’s encouraging to see that Abigail and Roy have found a way to collaborate on this piece of legislation – we can only hope it makes its way through Congress soon.
Let’s continue this conversation, in the comments below.
