Fifty-one newly elected House Democrats are calling on their leadership to include a stock trading ban in the chamber’s rules package for next Congress.
The group, led by Reps.-elect Sarah Trone Garriott of Iowa and Jamie Ager of North Carolina, sent a letter to House Democratic leaders suggesting “a rule barring members and their spouses from owning or trading stocks, commodities, futures, derivatives, and other related securities, with limited exceptions such as a diversified mutual fund or an investment held in a qualified blind trust.”
The group added, “Democrats may have won the election, but we have a long way to go to earn back the trust of voters across the country. The existing laws around insider trading are insufficient. We should hold ourselves to the highest standard and work to restore faith in government. Nobody should leave Congress with millions more in their bank accounts.”
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Including the ban in the House rules package means it would be adopted on the first day of the new Congress. But it would apply to only House members, and repercussions for violating the ban would be enforceable by just the House Ethics Committee.
The 51 incoming Democrats who signed the letter said the rule “would be a down payment on much-needed reform to prevent elected and appointed government officials and their spouses from trading stocks.”
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer, both of New York, have said a priority in the new Congress will be passing legislation to ban officials across all three branches of government from trading stocks.
Some Republicans are interested in such legislation as well.
House Republicans passed legislation this year to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, but Democrats mostly voted against it because Republicans added a voter ID provision and declined to extend the ban to the president and vice president.
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