Rick Scott & Josh Hawley Battle Over Bill To Ban Stock Trading By Members Of Congress

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Today's Senate Homeland Security Committee had tense moments between Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) over the PELOSI Act.

Transcript

00:00What other changes we can make to straighten this bill?

00:03Senator Scott.

00:06So first off, Senator Hawley, you said that I voted for the bill before.

00:10You also committed to work with me to improve the bill, which you didn't do.

00:15So let's think about where we are.

00:17I think everybody on this committee, nobody wants people to do trading.

00:22I think we all would agree with that.

00:25Nobody would like people to do trading.

00:27We've watched Nancy Pelosi.

00:28It seems like she's figured out how to make a fortune off of trading.

00:32We'd all like to make as much money as she made in trading.

00:35I don't know anybody in the country that's done that well.

00:39But if you look at this, if you have a small business, you come up here.

00:46It's illiquid.

00:48There's no buyer.

00:49What are you going to do?

00:52You just give it away.

00:54So you're telling people, let me finish.

00:57Okay.

00:58There's no buyer.

00:59If it's illiquid, there's no buyer.

01:02That's why it's called illiquid.

01:04All right.

01:05You made a reference to billionaires.

01:08Okay.

01:09I don't know when in this country it became a negative to make money.

01:13But somehow if you've made money, you're supposedly, I think Senator Harley suggests, you shouldn't be serving.

01:22Because you might trade stocks.

01:24Now I came up here.

01:26I made money.

01:26I started out never knowing my dad, living in public housing.

01:34I lived the dream that many of us wanted to live, not be broke.

01:37I went to junior college, joined the Navy.

01:44I didn't go to some elite university.

01:48I went to the cheapest place I could find.

01:51And I went and built businesses.

01:52But somehow now, if you've made money, somehow it's negative up here.

02:00I did what Senator Johnson did.

02:03When I became governor of Florida, I sold my operating businesses.

02:08Right?

02:08I did a blind trust while I was governor.

02:11I never saw what was in the blind trust.

02:14I never traded one thing that was in the blind trust.

02:16Somebody else did it.

02:17Now in this job, you know, I don't trade stocks.

02:24I own our operating businesses.

02:26But somehow, it's suspect because I made money.

02:30I don't know how many people in the audience, how many of you don't want to make money?

02:33Anybody want to be poor?

02:35I don't.

02:39Right?

02:39So this idea that we're going to attack people because they make money is wrong.

02:45Is absolutely wrong.

02:46We should cherish all of our different backgrounds.

02:50Every one of us has a different background.

02:52I've got a business background.

02:55But what I was just accused of is making money and somehow I can't be fair and do things the right way.

03:03So I think it's disgusting what is going on here.

03:07So, but, you know, I completely agree with you.

03:13We've got to stop people from trading stocks.

03:16But this goes, is way different.

03:18This is an attack against the president.

03:20Attack against the vice president.

03:22That's all.

03:23That's what this is.

03:24So I think it's wrong.

03:26Mr. Chairman.

03:29I just want to correct that Senator Scott said that if you have a small business,

03:33you'd be forced to sell it.

03:33Small businesses are explicitly exempted under this bill to 1,200 employees.

03:39They are not covered.

03:40If you have a small business, you can maintain your ownership in that business throughout the entire time.

03:45And I don't mind anybody being rich.

03:47What I mind is people getting rich while they're here trading stock, which I think we can all agree on.

03:52And this bill would put a stop to.

03:53So, 1,200 employees.

03:57I had one company with 285,000 employees.

04:01That was publicly traded.

04:02But when it was private, it was not liquid.

04:05I had a variety of manufacturing companies that had a lot of employees.

04:09That stock was illiquid.

04:13I mean, whether we, whether we, I mean, if any of you bought and sold companies, you do not have,

04:20oh, somebody's going to buy today.

04:21I know I can walk out the door and there'll be somebody to buy the company.

04:25So we're going to make people sell things when it might be an absolute worst time to sell something.

04:31And they busted their butt to go build that business.

04:34And then they want to come up here and serve.

04:36And then we say, well, you've got to give up your net worth.

04:38That's wrong.

04:40I'd like to make one quick point then, Senator Johnson.

04:43On the idea of whether you're a small business or not, I was a physician.

04:46There was 150 physicians in my practice.

04:49And we owned a bunch of stuff altogether.

04:51And we probably had 1,500, 2,000 employees.

04:55Sounds like I would have to divest as well.

04:57So you could be a small member of a large group that has a lot of money and a lot of employees.

05:03And you'd have to divest.

05:04I think there's just a lot of things that are not thought through here.

05:06Senator Johnson.

05:07I'd like to make a couple more points.

05:10I've been here now for 15 years.

05:11I've been here now for 15 years.

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