Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) urged Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-MI) to hold a hearing calling for legislation to ban lawmakers and their spouses from stock trading, Breitbart News can exclusively reveal.
“This issue of whether and how Members of Congress engage in various financial transactions deserves scrutiny by the Committee,” Hawley wrote to Peters.
The Missouri populist noted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her family continue to engage in “arguably inappropriate” stock trading activities. This includes her husband, Paul Pelosi, buying 20,000 shares of Nvidia, worth between $1 and $5 million, ahead of a likely vote in the Senate that could set aside $52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and give tax credits for production.
Hawley wrote on Monday, “Ban stock trading by members of Congress & their spouses. Call it the Pelosi Act.”
Hawley lamented that this “inappropriate” trading activity is not new. Paul Pelosi also purchased shares of Google one week before the House Judiciary Committee held an antitrust hearing.
“In 2020 Speaker Pelosi and her husband outperformed the S&P 500 by a whopping 14.3 percent,” Hawley emphasized. For context, over 90 percent of large, medium, and small-cap financial professionals fail to outperform the S&P 500.
Pelosi said in February that she would support a ban on lawmakers trading stocks only if it were “government-wide.” She also appeared to deflect attention on her family’s profitable stock trading by saying that the judiciary branch has no reporting requirements on its stock trades.
“The third branch of government, the judiciary, has no reporting. The Supreme Court has no disclosure. It has no reporting of stock transactions. And it makes important decisions every day,” Pelosi added.
Hawley noted many Senate Democrats introduced legislation, signaling a deep interest in bipartisan solutions to stock trading by lawmakers and their spouses.
Hawley introduced S. 3504, the Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act, and Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mark Kelly introduced S. 3494, the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) introduced S. 564, the Ban Conflicted Trading Act. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced S. 3631, the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced S. 3612, the STOCK Act 2.0.
“This suggests that there is a clear interest from our colleagues in taking action to address unethical stock trades,” Hawley remarked. “An oversight hearing would provide an opportunity to debate these various proposals and determine points of consensus in order to move forward.”
The Missouri senator said despite bipartisan efforts to rein in alleged unethical trading, “Speaker Pelosi and her husband remain undeterred from cashing in.”
Hawley noted a Data for Progress poll released in June found that more than 70 percent of Americans support a ban on trading stocks.
Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, follows his wife as she arrives for her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
“After all, clean government in Washington begins with Members of Congress putting the American people first — and not lining their own pockets,” Hawley wrote.
“I believe the time has come for the Committee to hold an oversight hearing focusing specifically on banning Members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks,” Hawley concluded in his letter to Peters. “Let’s get this done.”
2022-07-20 HSGAC Letter to Peters on Congressional Stock Trading FINAL 3 by Breitbart News on Scribd
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.