Two House Republicans vowed Wednesday to pressure Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders to advance a bill banning congressional stock trading in the coming weeks, not content to settle for a mere hearing on the topic.
“A bill will come to the floor,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said at a press conference outside the House Administration Committee hearing room, where academics were preparing to testify about the ins and outs of current stock trade ethics enforcement.
“This is a fist fight, folks,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) chimed in.
The lawmakers, appearing alongside Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, have been pushing for Congress to crack down on member stock trading.
They got a modest win with Johnson’s willingness to let a committee convene a hearing on the politically divisive topic. But they are now doubling down in their efforts to make sure the chamber also holds a markup and floor vote on actual legislation — either the compromise bill requiring members to divest from individual stocks, which the four lawmakers co-sponsored with a bipartisan coalition in September, or another version with similarly strong restrictions.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who is also advocating for the bipartisan stock trading legislation, said in an interview Tuesday she plans to unleash a discharge petition to end-run Johnson and try to force a floor vote on if GOP leaders fail to notice a markup on a congressional stock trading ban bill by the end of Wednesday.
But House GOP leaders are wary that a bipartisan bill or a similar measure will trigger blowback from a swath of Republicans, including some who say stock trading is an important source of income for themselves and their families.
Burchett disagreed, saying that if the House votes to ban congressional stock trading, members who are currently skeptical of the idea of a ban behind the scenes are “going to be our biggest cheerleaders[s]” on the chamber floor.
Political pressure to embrace a ban on stock trading, though, could run up against lawmakers who are protective of their activities in this space.
Fitzpatrick also warned that members’ individual stock performance will be discussed in hearings on any stock trading bill.
“Part of the fact finding is what members have done in terms of trading, sometimes on a daily basis,” Fitzpatrick said.
