Could the US ban stock trading for Congress members?

Some members are pushing for a vote on a stock ban and they're confident the bill will pass if it makes it to the floor.

Transcript

00:00Should members of Congress and their houses be banned from trading individual stocks while

00:05starting in Congress? No, I don't know to this second one. We have a responsibility to report

00:10in the stock on a stock, but if people aren't reporting, they should be. That was me asking

00:17then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi about stock trading in Congress, a moment that just

00:22resurfaced in a new New York Times story about how stock trading is impacting Pelosi's legacy as she

00:28looks to leave Congress next year. Back in 2021, Business Insider completed a five-month investigation

00:33finding that dozens of members of Congress and nearly 200 senior congressional staffers had

00:38violated the Stock Act, a law designed to prevent insider trading. Business Insider reporters combed

00:43through dozens of documents finding that lawmakers and staffers frequently miss deadlines for disclosing

00:48stock trades, sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars. I asked Speaker Pelosi if members of

00:52Congress and their spouses should be banned from trading individual stocks while serving. She said

00:57no, stating that we are a free market economy and that lawmakers should be able to participate in

01:01it. Pelosi's stocks are technically owned by her husband, Paul. Still, independent observers have

01:06found that the Pelosi's and other members of Congress have managed to outperform the market in their stock

01:11portfolios. Years later, stock trading in Congress remains a live issue. Weeks after I asked Pelosi about

01:17the stock trading ban, she reversed course herself on the issue, saying that she was open to a ban.

01:22In the House, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, is currently trying to force a vote

01:27on banning members of Congress from trading stocks. The bill would require lawmakers to completely divest

01:33their portfolios within 180 days of the bill's enactment. It's already gathered dozens of signatures,

01:38and the bill's authors say they're confident that it would pass if it makes it to the floor.