Congress Reaches Make-or-Break Moment on Stock Trading Ban

The push to bar members of Congress from trading individual stocks is heading toward a moment of truth this fall, as a slew of bills and mounting public pressure appears likely to force lawmakers to confront a question they have long tried to avoid: should elected officials, who often learn of market-moving information before the public, be allowed to directly participate in those markets?

The issue has simmered for years with little action, flaring during the pandemic when lawmakers were accused of profiting off early information about the coronavirus, and again this summer after multiple lawmakers filed stock disclosures months late. For critics, the pattern has laid bare the limits of the 2012 STOCK Act, which requires trades to be reported within weeks but imposes penalties so light that they are often shrugged off.

But this fall could present a make-or-break moment. In the Senate, a bipartisan bill from Senators Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, that would prohibit lawmakers and their families from trading individual stocks has already cleared the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In the House, Reps. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, and Seth Magaziner, a Rhode Island Democrat, are pressing for a vote on a separate bill that would require members of Congress and their families to divest altogether or place their assets in a blind trust, in which an independent manager controls all investments.

The House bill currently has 93 co-sponsors—77 Democrats and 17 Republicans—the most of any Congressional stock trading bill introduced in either chamber. Congressional watchers suspect there may be enough votes in both chambers to send a ban on members of Congress trading stocks to President Donald Trump, who has…