“We must be here to serve the public, not our portfolios:” Senators introduce bill cracking down on lawmaker insider trading

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - A new bill on Capitol Hill aims to crack down on lawmaker insider trading.

According to Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, last year alone members of congress made over 11 thousand trades totaling nearly $1 billion dollars in stock.

The ETHICS act - which stands for “Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stock” would bar members of congress, their children, and their spouses from trading individual stocks.

“We must be here to serve the public, not our portfolios,” said Senator Jeff Merley (D-OR).

Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) added, “Democrats, independent, Republicans overwhelmingly agree that members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we legislate and while we have access to confidential and privileged information.”

According to a University of Maryland poll, 86% of Republican voters and 88% of Democrats believe lawmaker insider trading should be banned.

But will the lawmakers themselves be the ones to do it?

Last year, an investigation by Business Insider found 78 lawmakers with discrepancies in their trade disclosures.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley says it’s time to put a stop to it.

“The only people who don’t seem to understand why stock trading should be banned are here in the Capitol,” said Sen. Hawley.

“This will be the first time that a Senate committee is considering legislation to bar members from trading stocks,” added Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. He vowed to introduce it to committee on July 24th.

The bill  would ban members and their families from investing in securities, futures, commodities, options and comparable holdings.  Each violation would come with a $500 fine.

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