With top House Democrats skeptical of barring lawmakers from owning individual stocks, a simmering issue has exploded, especially among members facing difficult re-election races.
By Jonathan Weisman, The New York Times — Feb 2, 2022
WASHINGTON — Facing stiff political headwinds and a flagging election-year agenda, the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress have found a way to distance themselves from their leaders: demanding an end to stock trading for all members of Congress, including senior lawmakers who are clearly leery.
The growing list of Democrats who have signed on to ethics legislation that would ban ownership of individual stocks is remarkably bipartisan, speaking to the political power of the issue. On the Democratic side, the names parallel the party’s list of endangered incumbents, many of whom rushed to sign on after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California expressed her opposition in December.
“We introduced this in June 2020 and reintroduced it this Congress,” said Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a Democrat from a politically competitive district who wrote a stock ban with Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a conservative Republican. “We were steadily adding co-sponsors, but it is absolutely the case that the speaker’s answer to that question related to stock ownership and trading really ignited this as an issue.”
The legislation faces a climb on Capitol Hill, where the skepticism of top Democrats makes it unlikely to be considered. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, reiterated his opposition on Wednesday. Ms. Pelosi, after initially dismissing the effort, more recently said she would be open to it if proponents could muster the votes, even as she suggested she considered it a bad idea.
“I just don’t buy into it, but if members want to do that, I’m OK with that,” she said last month, as the idea picked up support.
The surge in interest underscores the political potency of the issue in Congress, an institution increasingly detested by the public, and the popularity of the specific idea of banning stock trading by lawmakers, which recent polls have shown is supported by a lopsided proportion of voters in both parties.
Last week, 27 House members signed on to a letter to Ms. Pelosi and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top Republican, urging them “to swiftly bring legislation to prohibit members of Congress from owning or trading stocks.”
Signers included Democrats in some of the toughest districts in the country: Katie Porter of California, Jared Golden of Maine, Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Haley Stevens of Michigan and Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania.