Hi,

Republican Rep. John W. Rose sold between $100,000 and $250,000 of Wells Fargo stock in 2019, a few months before the House Financial Services committee – a committee he sits on – issued a damning report on the company that coincided with a steep decline in the bank’s stock price.1

Some Congress members are using their positions of power to trade stocks, game the system, and profit off from their elected offices. Yet, Congress continues to stall legislation banning stock trading by U.S. Representatives and Senators.

Tell Congress: Pass a ban on Congressional stock trading with NO loopholes!

Here’s what we currently know about how bad it is:

There have been countless scandals, including lawmakers trading stocks with non-public COVID information to get rich off the pandemic.2 And the New York Times reported a month ago that at least 97 members of Congress have traded stocks in the last 3 years that have direct ties to the Congress member’s legislative work.3 It’s corruption plain and simple, it’s bad for the American people, and it needs to stop.

44 of the most active stock traders in Congress bought and sold stocks in companies related to the committees they sit on.4 Several members traded pharmaceutical stocks while their committee conducted a congressional investigation of Big Pharma.5

The list of stock trades and conflicts of interest is enormous. And so is the potential for Congressional stock trading to lead to corporate-friendly policies that enrich America’s largest corporations and richest CEOs, while leaving the people behind.

A federal representative overseeing the energy sector should not have incentives to pass policies that help big fossil fuel companies, nor should a member of Congress on the Armed Services committee see dollar signs if they pass policies that enrich weapons manufacturers. We need to get stock trading out of Congress to stop these pro-corporate policy incentives.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Pramila Jayapal have introduced a strong bipartisan bill to ban stock trading in Congress with no loopholes.6 But Congressional leadership is trying to block action on this important issue.

Join us and urge Congress to ban stock trading in the U.S. House and Senate immediately. Congress must pass the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act.

Thanks for taking action,

Tihi and the team at Demand Progress

Sources: 

  1. The New York Times, “Stock Trades Reported by Nearly a Fifth of Congress Show Possible Conflicts,” September 13, 2022.
  2. Politico, “Lawmakers made hundreds of stock transactions during pandemic, watchdog finds,” April 29, 2020.
  3. The New York Times, “Stock Trades Reported by Nearly a Fifth of Congress Show Possible Conflicts,” September 13, 2022.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Office of Rep. Pramila Jayapal, “Jayapal, Rosendale, Warren, Daines Introduce New Bipartisan Bill To Ban Members of Congress from Owning and Trading Stocks,” February 9, 2022.

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