Congress Keeps Cashing In: STOCK Act Stalls While Lawmakers Play the Market

Washington’s favorite side hustle—trading stocks with suspicious timing—is alive and well. The STOCK Act? Still gathering dust.

Lawmakers keep making moves that’d land the rest of us in handcuffs. Meanwhile, the bill designed to stop them remains stuck in legislative purgatory. Classic DC efficiency.

Bonus jab: At least someone in government knows how to turn a profit—even if it’s just their brokerage accounts.

Gill made Bitcoin purchases just before Trump’s crypto bills

The STOCK Act was put in place to prevent insider trading and conflicts of interest among members of Congress. So when Gill made his January 29 Bitcoin purchase the week after TRUMP signed an executive order to “establish United States leadership in digital and financial technology,” it raised eyebrows.

The lawmaker’s February 27 purchase also falls under similar circumstances, as it came a week before Trump announced the creation of a “strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile” to make the United States “a leader among nations in government digital asset strategy.”

Gill has also disclosed making two additional Bitcoin purchases last month with the first happening on May 13 valued at between $100,001 and $250,000 and another on May 18 valued at between $50,001 and $100,000.

In both cases, which Gill disclosed before the 45-day federal deadline, Bitcoin’s value was slightly below its current price. So far, Gill has filed for purchases of up to $850k BTC, and he is not the only Congress member accused of ethically questionable stock trading.

Congress are pushing the boundaries of the STOCK Act

Gill’s Bitcoin purchases put him in the league of Congress members like Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) and Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), who have been fingered in violating the STOCK Act this decade.

The $200 penalty for missing the reporting deadline for Congressional trading “tends to be a joke.” Source: @QuiverQuant

Others like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Jefferson Shreve (R-Ind.), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), reportedly made a flurry of stock trades immediately before or after Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcements that roiled stock indices.

Meanwhile, at least two members of Congress — Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.) and Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) — have confirmed they are no longer trading individual stocks in a bid to avoid real or perceived financial conflicts of interest.

Now, there is a bipartisan coalition of federal lawmakers — made up of some on the far-right and far-left — who are supporting legislation that would ban members of Congress and their families from trading individual stocks and cryptocurrency outright.

Trump also seems to be on the same side as these lawmakers. This year, he even said he WOULD “sign a bill.” Talk of banning Congress members from trading has become a hot topic, especially since the tariff announcement, and the subject has overwhelming public support as well.

It remains to be seen if such legislation will pass, as some Congress members see their ability to trade as a perk. However, there is no doubt that the trading embargo is under serious consideration.

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