During a time of crisis, it’s more important than ever that our elected leaders have our best interests at heart. However, the actions of trickle-down Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and Richard Burr (R-NC) have shown that their first priority is their own bank accounts.

In the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak – days after the first confirmed U.S. case – both Sens. Loeffler and Burr were privately informed of the looming crisis in an all-senators briefing featuring top health officials from the CDC, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. Then a curious thing happened.

Over the next few weeks, both Burr and Loeffler sold hundreds of thousands and millions in stock, respectively, while publicly downplaying the risk that COVID-19 posed to the United States. During this period, Burr wrote a Fox News op-ed with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) claiming, “the United States is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus,” but, soon after, he privately warned group of insiders that the virus is, “much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history.”

Loeffler, meanwhile, parroted Trump talking points, downplaying the risk and claiming on Twitter that “[Trump] & his administration are doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe.” Privately, however, Loeffler was selling stock she knew would likely drop in price and, notably, was transferring her money into stock of web-based services, including teleconferencing (which, as we know now, was a surefire bet).

Here’s the problem with all of this: The STOCK Act of 2012 explicitly forbids members of Congress from trading stocks and enriching themselves based on insider information they learn only because of their position in Congress. This is no triviality: it’s supposed to prevent senators from putting their own financial interests over the well-being of their constituents. But the law only works if we enforce it. 

Now, more than ever, it’s important to hold our elected officials accountable for breaking the law to benefit themselves, especially while one in four American workers – more than 30 million people – are out of work and thousands of people are dying every day because of the coronavirus. These senators could have saved lives by warning the public about what they knew. Instead, they kept quiet and acted to save their fortunes. That cannot go unpunished.

If we’re going to hold our elected officials accountable, we need your voice speaking out immediately. Tell us now:

Should elected officials like Sens. Burr and Loeffler be held accountable for insider trading?