To stop politicians and their wives from trading equities on which the officials would have insider information, a Republican in the U.S. Senate made a not-so-subtle dig at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the bill’s title.
The PELOSI Act, officially known as the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act, was presented on Tuesday by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. It calls for members and their spouses to sell any holdings or place them in a blind trust within six months of taking office.
He wrote Tuesday on Twitter:
“Members of Congress and their spouses shouldn’t be using their position to get rich on the stock market – today l’m introducing legislation to BAN stock trading & ownership by members of Congress. I call it the PELOSI Act,”
Members of Congress and their spouses shouldn’t be using their position to get rich on the stock market – today l’m introducing legislation to BAN stock trading & ownership by members of Congress. I call it the PELOSI Act pic.twitter.com/aIXNwSnTvW
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 24, 2023
The legislation follows last year’s disclosures that Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul exchanged $1 million to $5 million worth of stocks for semiconductors just days before Congress approved $52 million for the sector. The stocks were later lost-making sales to eliminate any appearance of improper behavior.
On December 22, 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at a press conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who sold shares after getting top-secret briefings on the coronavirus epidemic, and other senators and their spouses have made comparable profitable trades.
Hawley’s measure does not cover mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and Treasury bond purchases. Any earnings made by a lawmaker would have to be given back to American taxpayers under Hawley’s proposed legislation.
Additionally, it modifies the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which outlaws insider trading—commonly known as utilizing confidential information for personal gain—which is already unlawful for business executives and regular Americans.
The President of the United States, the Vice President, a few members of the executive branch, the Postmaster General, some civilian employees, a few members of Congress, and judicial officers are currently required by the law to file a report that details the source, kind, and amount of income they received from sources other than their current employment.
On September 13, 2022, Senator Josh Hawley delivered a speech on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. To help halt congressional insider trading, Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter, D-New York, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., sponsored the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act,” often known as the “STOCK Act,” in 2012.
The measure, signed into effect, forbids MPs and staff from using knowledge obtained during parliamentary sessions for personal gain. The act also states that parliamentarians are not exempt from the restrictions on insider trading imposed by securities regulations.
Every stock transaction involving $1,000 or more made by a member of Congress or a member of their family must be reported within 45 days. Bipartisan support exists for efforts to stop lawmakers from making private gains from their positions of public trust, and Hawley and others from both sides of the political divide have started legislation to do just that.
Hawley sponsored a bill earlier this year to forbid politicians from trading stocks while in office. Similar legislation was introduced by Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Jon Ossoff of Georgia.
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Reps reintroduced a plan prohibiting politicians and their family members from trading individual stocks or using their public office for “political benefit” earlier this month. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Abigail Spanberger, D-Virginia. On January 17, 2023, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi appear in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
The Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust in Congress Act, or TRUST Act, would mandate that while serving in Washington, DC, lawmakers and family members place certain investments into an approved blind trust.
Spanberger said at the time:
“Strengthening our democracy and building true resilience against corruption is not just about preventing unethical decisions, but it is also about addressing the feeling among many Americans that their elected officials and government don’t work for them. This perception is damaging to our democracy, and the TRUST in Congress Act would help build trust and assure the public that members of Congress are not serving their own financial interests,”
(The above statement is taken from Foxnews)
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