The bills enjoy broad support — Ms. Spanberger’s TRUST in Congress Act’s 42 co-sponsors include Florida representatives Matt Gaetz, Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry and Maryland’s Andy Harris, all firmly in the Trump wing of their party — and if anything, they put Ms Pelosi in the spotlight.
“You have the Speaker of the House who trades, and her husband who makes millions and millions of dollars a year,” said Mr. hawley.
Democrats are just as eager to contrast their position with Ms. Pelosi’s. They said her refusal in December to consider a stock trading ban — “We’re a free-market economy,” she said when asked about the push — made the issue a cause célèbre.
“The speaker, I don’t want to call her right away, but a handful of members have been putting here for decades and decades. They’re coming here from a different time and a different perspective,” said Ms. Stevens, who almost certainly faced another Democrat, Andy Levin, in the upcoming House primaries in Michigan’s new district. Both signed last week’s letter demanding action against a trade ban.
Democratic leaders remain suspicious. They argue that once Congress starts trying to regulate its own members out of investment, it’s hard to draw the line between what’s allowed and what isn’t. If share ownership is prohibited because it could violate the law, would having a student loan make it inappropriate for a member to push for loan reduction? Would owning real estate constitute an improper personal interest in environmental or land use policy?
Mr Roy admitted there were complexities, but, he said, a line had to be drawn.
“When you talk about dirt, are you talking about your family farm or are you involved in thousands of real estate transactions?” he asked. “Do you buy and sell and develop commercial real estate transactions while in Congress? There are limits to what we have to do.”
Drew Hammill, Deputy Chief of Staff to Ms. Pelosi, said the speaker had asked Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, to examine a series of proposals to regulate trade from lawmakers, including a ban on stock ownership. Ms. Lofgren is also considering tougher penalties for “unacceptable non-compliance” with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a 2012 law requiring lawmakers to disclose their stock trades, a move he said Ms. Pelosi supports.
