Republican Senator Josh Hawley (Mo.) has introduced a bill that would prohibit lawmakers and their spouses from trading stocks from which the lawmakers may receive privileged information.
Hawley took a dig at the lawmaker who inspired the legislation, calling it the PELOSI Act, after the former House Speaker.
The Missouri Republican introduced the legislation — officially the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act — on Tuesday (January 24).
If implemented, the legislation would require members of Congress and their spouses to divest their holdings or put them into a blind trust within six months of taking office.
Taking to Twitter to announce the legislation, Hawley asserted that lawmakers shouldn’t be using their roles to become rich, noting that he was “introducing legislation to BAN stock trading & ownership by members of Congress.”
Although the law bans stock trading, exchange-traded funds, Treasury bonds, and exchange-traded funds are excluded.
If members of Congress choose to trade, any profits would have to be forfeited to the American people.
The trading activity of lawmakers and their spouses was scrutinized after it was discovered the former House Speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, had traded between $1 million and $5 million of semiconductor stocks within days of Congress allocating $52 billion to the industry.
Paul Pelosi later sold the stocks at a loss in an attempt to cover any signs of impropriety.
Pelosi hasn’t been the only lawmaker to make moves on the stock market based on their position in Congress; Republican Senator Richard Burr (N.C.) sold his stocks following a briefing about COVID-19.
