Neguse Leads Renewed Call for Ban on Congressional Stock Trading: “Just put a bill on the Floor to ban it. Period. Members of Congress will no longer be able to trade stocks. Simple as that.”

Washington, D.C. — In case you missed it, Congressman Joe Neguse joined a bipartisan coalition on the House Floor yesterday evening to call on Speaker Mike Johnson to bring forth legislation that would ban Members of Congress from holding or trading stocks. Neguse, who has led the four-year effort to ban the practice, spoke of the need to weed out corruption in Washington and ensure transparency in all branches of government. 

Newfound support from across the political spectrum emerged after public reporting revealed that some Members of Congress profited inappropriately from the Trump Administration’s erratic economic policy shifts and the chaotic, on-again-off-again imposition of tariffs.

 

NEGUSE: Our 26th President, Teddy Roosevelt, once said, “No man who is corrupt, no man who tolerates corruption in others, can do his duty by the community.” That admonition rings true today.

Four years ago, I led an effort to ban stock trading by Members of Congress, joined with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. For four years, we have tried to convince this Chamber to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks. Why? Because Members of Congress should be serving their communities, their constituents, and their country—not their stock portfolios.

In that four-year span, forty-eight months, 1,400 days—how many millions of dollars have Members of Congress in this body made from trading stocks? It's unconscionable. It's a practice that should have ended years ago. And we have continued to beat that drum, month after month, week after week, day after day—and we will keep doing it until a majority in this body joins the rest of the American people, the public, in supporting a ban on this insidious practice. 

And I'm grateful to Representative Magaziner for continuing to beat that drum. Leading the effort now, over the last two years. It feels as though we're on the precipice—as Mr. Magaziner noted—of finally getting traction in this Chamber to end this practice. 

But the one cautionary note I would offer, Mr. Speaker, is that in that four-year span, as I mentioned, this journey, this battle that we have waged—again, colleagues of mine on both sides of the aisle to ban stock trading—I have heard virtually every excuse in the book from some of my colleagues.

It's too complicated. There are competing bills. The legislative text is complex. 

This is very simple. Just ban it. 

Not five years from now, not next year. Just put a bill on the Floor to ban it. Period. 

Members of Congress will no longer be able to trade stocks. Simple as that. 

I hope, Mr. Speaker, that my colleagues will join me, join Mr. Magaziner, join the coalition that has organized around this issue so that we can finally get this done and end corruption here in Washington. 

With that, Mr. Magaziner, I yield back.