House Democratic leadership will announce legislation in August banning lawmakers from trading stocks

By Daniella Diaz, CNN

House Democratic leadership will announce legislation next month that would ban lawmakers, their spouses and senior staff from trading stocks, a source familiar with the plan tells CNN.

The proposal would force lawmakers to choose between putting their stocks in a qualified blind trust or completely divesting their investment portfolios.

The goal is to move this legislation in September, the source said. Punchbowl News first reported this development.

The ability of lawmakers to trade stocks has been the subject of increasing scrutiny over the years. Several lawmakers were scrutinized for their financial transactions during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when members of Congress received closed-door briefings that warned of an impending financial crash. Earlier this year, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley offered separate legislation that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks, but the legislation ultimately went nowhere.

Thursday’s development is especially notable because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long defended lawmakers’ ability to trade stocks.

“This is a free market and people — we are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi said in December.

The-CNN-Wire
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