Congressional Trading Ban Back on the Table—House to Vote Post-Shutdown
Lawmakers finally address the elephant in the room—their own stock portfolios.
The Trading Freeze Playbook
After the government lights get turned back on, the House plans to tackle one of Wall Street's favorite hypocrisies: politicians playing the market with insider-level intel. No numbers? No problem—the optics alone are damning.
Why Now?
Public pressure hits different after a shutdown. Voters see the disconnect: lawmakers profiting from trades while failing to keep the lights on. Cue the performative reform.
The Cynic's Take
Watch for loopholes wide enough to drive a Lambo through—'family offices' and 'blind trusts' incoming. After all, nothing unites Congress like preserving their right to financial alchemy.
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“Speaker Johnson has notified me that as soon as we return and the government is reopened, the bill to ban insider trading is going to be marked up in committee,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida in an X post.
Shutdown Stalls Luna’s Discharge Petition to Ban Lawmaker Trading
Luna has already signed the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which WOULD ban members of Congress, their spouses, dependent children, and trustees from trading individual stocks, securities, commodities, and futures.
She previously set a deadline for the end of September to enforce a discharge petition to ban trading among lawmakers. The petition is used to force a bill out of a committee and bring it to the full House for a vote, even if the committee leadership doesn’t support it. However, the government shutdown disrupted Luna’s plan, and it isn’t clear if or when she plans to still use the petition.
