Senators Announce Bipartisan Bill to Ban Lawmaker Stock Trading

(LibertySons.org) – In an effort to legislate morality and because our lawmakers can’t be trusted to follow existing laws, a bipartisan group of senators has announced a bill that would block Senators, Representatives — and their families — from making money from information they received in the course of their duties.

Insider trading involves trading in a public company’s stock or other securities by someone with non-public, material information about the company.” These regulations, which are enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), have been around since the 1960s.

Now, some Senators have taken the time to draft and introduce a bill that would ban stock trading. In his remarks, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, “Congress should not be here to make a buck. There is no reason why members of Congress ought to be profiting off of the information that only they get, and the rest of the American people don’t get.”

This isn’t the first time Hawley has tried to get stock trade bans passed. In January 2023, he announced The Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. This was in response to the incredible success of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) stock portfolio, which, even now, according to Business Insider, has been giving triple-digit returns of over 700% since 2014. Of course, this success is not limited to Democrat lawmakers, but Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) has had total returns of over 500% since 2019.

Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) joined Hawley in making the announcement.

If it becomes law, it would mean the following:

  • Ban Congress and the President and Vice President from trading covered assets
  • Require these officials and their immediate families to sell their covered assets starting in 2027
  • STOCK Act disclosure violations would increase from $200 to $500

The bill will now head to the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee meeting on July 24.

~Here’s to Our Liberty!

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