Yesterday afternoon, a bipartisan group of House members—running the gamut from progressives to Trump-cheering conservatives—held a press conference in the Capitol to announce the introduction of a unified bill to ban members of Congress from trading, or owning, stocks.
The legislation, titled the Restore Trust in Congress Act, emerged from discussions held since April aiming to consolidate several bills that would restrict stock trading and ownership by lawmakers over conflict of interest concerns. The measure is led by Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), joined by others including Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). More House co-sponsors joined yesterday along with its unveiling, split evenly between the two parties.
MAGA-allied Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a co-sponsor, joined the press conference. Over the summer, Luna vowed to file a discharge petition that, if signed by a majority of House members, would force a floor vote on a stock-trading and stock-owning ban for lawmakers.
Yesterday, Luna said that she was still willing to pursue the discharge petition if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not bring up the bill by the end of the month. "We have asked nicely for leadership to put this on the floor," she said. "If they don't, I'm saying the timeline is end of month. There is a discharge petition prepared and ready to go."
Asked whether he would support the discharge petition, Roy responded that Speaker Johnson, President Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and large numbers of his colleagues support banning trading by members of Congress. Roy said he would prefer for the bill to move through the committee process. “And if it doesn't move through regular order, then we'll decide what we need to do to make sure that it gets a vote, but it will get a vote,” he said.
