Hawley and Gillibrand team up to ban lawmakers and officials from owning stock
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) unveiled legislation on Wednesday to bar lawmakers and members of the executive branch from owning stock in individual companies.
The legislation would prohibit lawmakers, senior executive branch officials and their spouses from owning stocks, even in blind trust. It would also establish disclosure requirements.
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The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the legislation introduced by Gillibrand and Hawley.
The Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act would require those who violate the ban would be required to forfeit profit from stock trading and could face fines of $10,000 or more. The legislation also specifies that members of Congress would face a penalty of at least 10% of the value of the prohibited investments if they don’t comply with the ban.
“Politicians and civil servants shouldn’t spend their time day-trading and trying to make a profit at the expense of the American public, but that’s exactly what so many are doing,” Hawley said in a statement.
Currently, lawmakers and their staff are allowed to own and trade individual stocks as long as they don’t use classified information they have access to as a result of their jobs to make investment decisions. Government officials would also be required to report if they, a spouse or a dependent, apply for a “benefit of value” from the federal government, which could include contracts, loans, grants, payments, and agreements. If they fail to disclose, they will face a $500 fine.
“It is critical that the American people know that their elected leaders are putting the public first – not looking for ways to line their own pockets,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
Public outrage over the practice first captured the nation’s attention when former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) sold up to $1.7 million in stocks just before COVID-19 hit the United States. In his capacity on the key panel, Burr received regular briefings on threats to the U.S.
Support for a ban grew when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi, sold millions of dollars worth of shares of a computer chipmaker as the House prepared to vote on legislation regarding chip manufacturing. Initially, Pelosi said she would not support a ban. She eventually reversed course and committed to taking up legislation that would restrict members from stock trading, but the legislation stalled.
Earlier this spring, the Washington Examiner first reported about an effort led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and 20 other Democratic and independent senators to prohibit lawmakers from buying or selling stocks. It would also require them and their spouses and dependents to divest from certain assets or place holdings into a “qualified blind trust,” a proposal that wouldn’t apply to lawmakers who were only recently elected this Congress until their next reelection.
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Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced legislation in February of last year that attempted to ban members of Congress and their spouses from owning stocks or other investments that could be influenced by their service in Congress.
Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) also co-sponsored a companion bill in the House.