A bipartisan proposal that would ban elected members of Congress and the executive branch from trading stocks while in office advanced out of a U.S. Senate committee this week but faces concerns from some GOP senators over its reach.
The bill passed out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs with an 8-to-4 vote Wednesday. Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who sits on the committee and who earlier proposed a ban on stock trading, was part of the negotiations that led to the compromise bill.
Ossoff touted the bill’s advancement as an important step forward during a virtual press conference Thursday, calling it “essential ethics reform.”
“This is ethics reform that is long overdue,” Ossoff said Thursday. “The public is weary of hearing these controversies about members of Congress who are trading stocks in companies that they regulate, who are trading stocks around major global events into which we as elected officials may have advance notice and insight.”
Ossoff’s work on the issue can be traced back to the 2020 election when both GOP Senate candidates in Georgia were the focus of controversies over their stock trading activities. But the examples aren’t limited to one party, and the support for a ban on stock trading is coming from both sides of the aisle.
“There’s been a lot of talk about banning stock trading by members of Congress, but never have we been able to get a vote,” Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who voted for the bill, said during Wednesday’s committee meeting.
Some Republican senators, though, opposed the bill in its current form. Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney dismissed it as a “messaging bill,” arguing that insider trading is already illegal and expressing particular concern over a provision that would require divestiture of private assets.
He panned the proposal as an attempt to block former President Donald Trump from being president again, citing his ownership of Truth Social.
“I’m saying this as an American concerned about being able to attract good people into political office,” said Romney, who is retiring next year. “These provisions are extraordinarily detrimental to being able to attract good people into public office.”
The next president, as well as the future vice president and members of Congress, would have until 2027 to adhere to the changes.
Members of Congress would be immediately banned from buying stocks and other covered investments, and they would be prohibited from selling stocks 90 days after the bill is enacted.
Spouses and dependent children would also be banned from trading stocks starting in 2027.
Some investments, such as a diversified mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, or ETF, would be exempt.
“I don’t know what the former president’s current portfolio is. Whoever is elected president would have multiple years to comply,” Hawley said to his fellow Republicans. “But I do know there’s always an excuse for why we can’t do a stock trade bill. I’ve heard this for years.”
Romney pressed without success to exempt securities and assets owned prior to a president, vice president or member of Congress taking office.
“Part of this negotiated deal is that people don’t think that those assets should be there because it’s always in the back of your mind that you have those assets,” said Chairman Gary Peters, who is a Michigan Democrat.
“You shouldn’t differentiate between public-held assets and private. You can’t say, ‘Well, if you own public stocks, you can’t hold it. But if you have a private company that’s actually less transparent, you can do that.”
Peters said he wanted the committee vote to show that there is “some momentum going forward that we are in agreement that this is something that we should be addressing.”
Ossoff acknowledged Thursday that there are limited opportunities this year to move the bill to the Senate floor.
“We’ve made major progress getting this through committee. It’s going to take continued effort to try to advance this to passage on the floor, and I’ll explore every option and opportunity to do so,” Ossoff told reporters.
This story was provided by WABE content partner Georgia Recorder.
