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GOP Rep. Chip Roy Blasts Democrats For Handling Of Stock Trading Bill

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy is ripping Democrats for claiming publicly that they support a bill aimed at preventing lawmakers from insider trading. In a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Texas Republican slammed Democrats for not moving with any urgency to at least hold a vote on the STOCK Act.

Roy noted that he worked with Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger on the bill that would prevent lawmakers and members of their families from trading individual stocks.

“As you are aware, the House floor schedule this week contains the ‘Possible Consideration of Legislation Related to the STOCK Act.’ I am glad to see the House finally taking up the idea of reforming policies related to Member stock trading. However, as one of the original sponsors of reform language — notably introducing HR336, the TRUST in Congress Act, some 2 years ago with my Democrat colleague from Virginia, Abigail Spanberger — I was interested to see the ‘final’ language via Jake Sherman’s Twitter account last night,” Roy wrote.

“The state of the House of Representatives is absurd — and that is not a partisan statement,” he continued. “Like virtually every other legislative idea or proposal, we have not had any robust debate on reforms to member stock trading or even a ‘Member Day’ hearing that would allow each member of the House to air individual views on the matter. This complex issue requires thought, debate, amendment, and a full airing in committee to build as much bipartisan agreement as possible rather than the normal cram-down from the top that permeates literally everything we do.”

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Congress has spent months debating legislation that would, to an extent, forbid federal lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children to buy, sell, or hold individual stocks. Top congressional leaders paused any progress on the bill until the conclusion of November’s midterm elections.

GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy, who will likely become the next Speaker if Republicans win back the House in the midterms, said there will be an investigation into the Pelosis stock trading.

“I would look through it,” he said of the Democrat proposal to ban stock trading for spouses of Congress members. “What I’ve told everybody is we will come back, and we will not only investigate this, we will come back with a proposal to change the current behavior.”

“Her husband can trade all the way through, but now it becomes a crisis?” he said. “I think what her husband did was wrong.”

“I think we need to bring trust back to this institution,” he said. “I think we have to do a thorough investigation and look at what is the proper role for members of Congress and what influence they have, and I don’t think the proper way to do this is Nancy Pelosi writing the bill because we have proven that she can not do that.”

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Money Wise reported:

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, had originally directed the House Administration Committee to draft legislation back in February, but the release of that draft this fall came at a bit of an awkward time. Just weeks before, she’d faced harsh criticism when her husband, Paul, a venture capitalist, exercised his call options and purchased shares in Nvidia, a manufacturer of graphics cards.

It was right before the Senate was expected to vote on a bipartisan bill that would see domestic chipmakers get a $52 billion subsidy, and the move received significant blowback. That bill ultimately passed in July and, amid the scrutiny, Paul Pelosi sold his holdings in the semiconductor manufacturer at a six-figure loss.

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Top figures have argued that they don’t believe the bill will do much to limit insider trading, especially if the bill has a built-in loophole around the “blind trust requirement.”

Former Obama administration ethics chief Walter Shaub tweeted last month: “Pelosi’s bill would … [authorize] each ethics office to allow anything they want and call it a blind trust. Literally anything. There are no limits in the bill as to what these office can do.”

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