Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) filed a discharge petition Tuesday to force a vote on the longtime issue of banning congressional stock trading.
Luna has continuously threatened to deploy a discharge petition for months if House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) failed to move on the issue.
“Across the country, from every political background, the American people agree on one thing: Members of Congress should not be enriching themselves with insider trading,” Luna wrote on X. “This is one of the most popular, most supported bipartisan issues in the entire country. Americans deserve a Congress that works for them, not for special interests or personal portfolios.”
Banning congressional stock trading has long had deep bipartisan support, but has picked up new momentum after a bipartisan group of lawmakers began meeting earlier this year to find a solution.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who was part of the working bipartisan group, said he was the second signature on the petition after Luna introduced it.
“Call your legislators, we got to ban stock trading, y’all know this place is crooked, and you know what’s going on, dadgumit,” Burchett said in a video on X. “We can do a lot better, we need to show America at least we’re going to try to do something honest about it.”
Luna said in a post on X that Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chairwoman of House Republican leadership and candidate for governor of New York, told her that she would also sign the petition.
“I have just received word from @RepStefanik that she fully supports the discharge petition we have introduced to STOP insider trading and will be signing on!” Luna wrote. “Thank you, Elise!!”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Stefanik’s office for confirmation.
Stefanik bucked her House leadership peers this week over a separate issue, where she accused Johnson of allowing Democrats to remove an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act, a part of the National Defense Authorization Act, that would require congressional notice if the FBI opens investigations into presidential and federal candidates. Johnson denied her criticism, saying that her claims were “false.”
Stefanik’s signature would come after she bucked her House leadership peers over the absence of a proposed amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act in the annual National Defense Authorization Act. Stefanik accused Johnson of allowing Democrats to remove it, which Johnson has denied.
Still, Stefanik’s signature would provide Luna with key GOP support for her discharge petition, as the measure will need 218 signatures, a simple majority, to force Johnson to put the vote on the floor.
The House Administration Committee held a hearing last month that included a discussion on banning members of Congress from trading stocks, but a hearing does not guarantee that any legislation will be brought up, as the committee has not scheduled a markup on any bill to pass it out of committee.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, signed into law in 2012, prohibits members from acting on insider information and requires them to report their trades within 45 days, but the law acts more as a slap on the wrist. The penalty is a mere $200 fine.
Earlier this year, Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Seth Magaziner (D-RI) reintroduced the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust in Congress Act, which would ban Congress members, their spouses, and dependent children from trading individual stocks.
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Last year, a group of bipartisan senators, including Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), introduced legislation that passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to ban stock trading for sitting Congress members, marking the first time a bill with this language passed out of committee. Ossoff has introduced similar legislation multiple times, but none have crossed the finish line.
Johnson has expressed his frustration with members’ use of discharge petitions, often described as a tool of the minority, in this Congress, as more lawmakers have vowed to bring forward petitions following the successful effort to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.