The Congress House is expected to vote next week on Bryan Steil’s Stop Insider Trading Act, a proposal to bar members of Congress from buying new stocks. The bill would cover spouses and dependent children, and the vote is set to come before lawmakers head home for August recess.
Bryan Steil bill
Steil, the House Administration Chair, has led the proposal for months. The measure would let lawmakers keep stocks they already own and buy and sell diversified investment funds, but it would not force them to sell within 90 days of taking office.
That narrower design is the point of the fight. Democrats are lining up against the bill because they want any stock-trading ban to include the president and vice president, while the GOP push is for a House-only restriction.
Anna Paulina Luna petition
Anna Paulina Luna filed a discharge petition at the end of last year to bring a broader stock-trading bill to the floor. The petition drew 84 signatures, including 15 Republicans, before it lost momentum as Democrats pressed for the executive branch to be included.
Luna said this week, “Hakeem Jeffries killed the discharge petition,” after Democrats introduced their own legislation and their own discharge petition aimed at adding executive branch coverage. Without Republican support, that effort has languished.
Jeffries on Pennsylvania Avenue
Hakeem Jeffries said, “If Republicans were serious about cleaning up corruption in this town, they would start at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” and later said, “When we pass a stock-trading ban, it will apply to members of Congress, along with the president, the vice president, and members of his corrupt administration.”
Joseph D. Morelle, the House Administration ranking member, called the proposal, “It’s so filled with holes it would make Swiss cheese blush,” while Tim Burchett said, “All that bill does is allows you to keep your stock, so you’ll even be more encouraged by that to make more votes that are obliging to your stock portfolio,”
The coming vote will show whether the House advances Steil’s narrower bill or leaves the broader fight unresolved as members return to their districts. The practical issue for lawmakers is simple: keep the focus on Congress alone, or reopen the fight over whether the ban should reach the president and vice president too.
