(TargetLiberty.org) – A new bipartisan bill aims to finally stamp out insider trading inside the legislature. For years, a loophole has allowed US lawmakers to buy and sell stocks based on confidential information available through their jobs. Now it looks like, at last, the loophole will be closed and it’s going to impact some big names.
Right now, @SenWarren is discussing the bipartisan ban on congressional stock ownership: no owning, no trading, for members or spouses.
"This means if you want to be in public service, the public never has to doubt on whose behalf you are working." pic.twitter.com/Kr41UkEKaJ
— The Recount (@therecount) February 9, 2022
The Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act jointly sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Steve Daines (R-MO) promises to deliver the most radical ever shakeup of Congress’s stock-trading privileges. The act doesn’t stop at banning legislators, it also applies to spouses like the multi-millionaire husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The new act would also force them to sell off stocks they already hold and put other market-linked assets in a blind trust.
Many members of Congress have increased their wealth using privileged information to trade stocks, and Pelosi is one of the richest. As of 2021, her net worth was valued at around $120 million, making her the sixth richest legislator. Last year, her husband made $5.3 million on tech stocks alone while Pelosi was working on antitrust rules that affected the companies he was trading. Now, Pelosi claims she supports Warren and Daines’s bill – but it’s not what she was saying last year, when she insisted on her right to trade.
Has she realized the American people won’t put up with her greed anymore?
Copyright 2022, TargetLiberty.org
