Two senators from opposite parties are reviving a campaign to curb lawmakers’ stock trading, with Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida saying Thursday that they will introduce new legislation aimed at reducing lawmakers’ ability to profit from individual stock ownership. The effort, which they shared initially with The Associated Press, has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled in Congress, according to the reporting.
Gillibrand and Moody said the bill would bar members of Congress and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks. The proposal also would prohibit lawmakers from trading and owning other financial assets, including securities, commodities and futures, the AP reported. The senators framed the measure as part of a broader push, amid a recent “flurry of proposals” in both chambers, to limit stock trading by lawmakers.
The specific plan from Gillibrand and Moody builds on earlier House legislation that drew bipartisan interest. The AP reported that the Senate bill is a version of a House proposal introduced last year by Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, and Rep. Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from Rhode Island, which the AP said has 125 cosponsors and would ban members of Congress from buying or selling individual stocks altogether.
In the House, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida attempted to advance the issue by pushing to bypass party leadership and force a vote, including using a discharge petition. The AP reported that Luna’s effort had 79 of the 218 signatures required, with the majority of those signatures coming from Democrats, and that House Republican leaders instead backed a different approach.
House Republican leadership’s alternative would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from buying individual stocks but would not require lawmakers to divest from stocks they already own, according to the AP. The approach would also require public notice seven days before a lawmaker sells a stock, and the AP reported that the bill advanced in committee on Wednesday, which Luna called “a win,” in remarks included in the AP account.
Gillibrand and Moody’s bill would set a divestment timetable, giving lawmakers 180 days to divest after the bill takes effect and newly elected members 90 days from being sworn in, the AP reported. The senators also said the measure would include exceptions for the president and vice president, a carveout likely to draw criticism from some Democrats, the AP said.
Gillibrand told the AP in an interview Wednesday that “There’s an American consensus around this, not a partisan consensus, that members of Congress and, frankly, senior members of administrations and the White House, shouldn’t be making money off the backs of the American people.” In remarks included in the AP report, Gillibrand said the president “should be held to the same standard” but characterized the legislation as “a good place to start,” saying she did not want “the perfect to be the enemy of the good” and describing the effort as stemming from bipartisan consensus in both bodies of Congress.
Moody, responding to questions from the AP, wrote that the goal is to ensure lawmakers can be trusted to focus on serving the public rather than profiting from office. The AP reported that Moody wrote that “The American people must be able to trust that their elected officials are focused on results for the American people and not focused on profiting from their positions,” and also said in her written response that Congress has the “constitutional power of the purse,” making it important that its members not have “any other interests in mind, financial or otherwise.”
Whether the Senate bill reaches a floor vote remains uncertain, the AP reported. A similar bill introduced by Gillibrand and GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri in 2023 did not advance out of committee. Still, the AP said the issue is also resonating on the campaign trail, noting Moody’s bid for election to her first full term in Florida this year after being appointed to her seat when Marco Rubio became secretary of state, and adding that Gillibrand chairs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.