U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Representative Chip Roy (R-TX), speaks at a information convention with a bipartisan group of House members to say they’re ready to pressure a vote on laws to ban members of Congress and their households from buying and selling shares on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 3, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
A ban on members of Congress and their households buying and selling or proudly owning shares obtained new momentum Wednesday, after a bipartisan group of House members introduced they’d come to an settlement on a new bill.
The Restore Trust in Congress Act combines a number of completely different proposals into one automobile that supporters say will focus the controversy and result in passage.
Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., one of many lead sponsors of the bill, stated the truth that members of Congress are permitted to commerce and personal particular person shares makes “people go nuts, because it is crazy to the average person that this has been allowed to go on for so long.”
“We have reached a tipping point where the pressure from outside the building is becoming too much for leadership to deny,” he stated throughout a press convention on the Capitol on Wednesday.
The bill’s supporters span the political spectrum – they embody hardline conservative Republicans like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who can also be main the bill, and Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee; average Republicans like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; and progressive Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
The new bill would ban members of Congress, their spouses and dependent kids from proudly owning, shopping for or buying and selling particular person shares and different banned property whereas in workplace — even when these property are held in a blind belief.
It would additionally require lawmakers to promote any shares, choices, futures and commodities they personal quickly after being sworn into workplace. Any member who violates the ban would want to pay a payment equal to 10% of the worth of the lined funding, and do away with any income from that funding.
The measure would not embody government department officers, together with the president, not like a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that was superior by a committee in July however is unlikely to get a flooring vote after it was criticized by President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has expressed common help for a ban up to now, however not any particular bill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., stated through the press convention Wednesday that if management did not carry a bill to the ground by the top of the month, she would pressure a vote on it although a procedural maneuver that might require a easy majority of the House – 218 lawmakers – to again it.
Despite the rising momentum in help of a ban, there’s nonetheless vital opposition to it — the identical opposition that has thwarted previous makes an attempt to enact limits on congressional stock buying and selling past these contained within the 2012 STOCK Act.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., was considered one of a number of lawmakers to argue throughout a July listening to that the measure can be a barrier that stored enterprise house owners and executives from operating for public workplace.
“We have we have too many career politicians. We don’t have enough people who have experience in private sector,” Johnson stated. “This piece of legislation would be hugely discouraging to people from the private sector coming here and serving.”
But supporters of the ban stated that those that wished to serve wanted to place the nation’s pursuits forward of their very own.
“If you want to trade stocks go to Wall Street,” Luna stated Wednesday. “Don’t go to Congress.”