97 members of Congress or families bought or sold stock that may have been a conflict of interest
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REVEALED: 97 members of Congress or their families bought or sold stock that may have been a conflict of interest
- Of the 435 members of the House, 183 shares traded through themselves or their immediate family members from 2019 to 2021
- At least 97 bought or sold stocks, bonds or other financial assets directly related to their congressional work
- The professions that intersect committee work are evenly split on party lines – 49 Republicans and 48 Democrats
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According to a New York Times, nearly 100 members of Congress bought or sold financial assets that intersect with the work of the committees they sit on. report.
Of the 435 members of the House, 183 traded stocks through themselves or their immediate family members from 2019 to 2021. At least 97 bought or sold stocks, bonds or other financial assets through themselves or their spouses directly related to their congressional work.
US lawmakers have not yet banned trading stocks, although insider trading is illegal for anyone.
The professions that intersect committee work are evenly spread across partisan lines – 49 Republicans and 48 Democrats.
The fact that nearly one-fifth of Congress has transacted that could represent a conflict of interest has led to a slew of legislative proposals to ban lawmakers from fully transacting.
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., proposed her own legislation to ban transactions, but was listed because her college-age son bought and sold stock without her knowing.
Craig, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said she discovered her son was trading shares in Uber and Lyft when she filed her transaction papers.
New Jersey Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, who traded stock in 326 companies and had 43 conflicts
California Democrat Rep. Rho Khanna reported transactions in 897 companies and had 149 potential conflicts
“As a mother, I would be grateful if my student son was not allowed to own or trade stocks. And as a member of Congress, I’m working on a law to force him to listen to his mother,” she said in a statement to the Times.
Since 2012, congressmen have been bound by the STOCK Act, which requires them to report stock transactions of $1,000 or more by themselves or their family members.
Some of the most egregious conflict of interest violations include Delaware Sen. Tom Carpenter, D, who traded in 138 companies and had 39 potential conflicts of interest, New Jersey Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, who traded stock in 326 companies and had 43 conflicts, and California Democrat Rep. Rho Khanna, who reported transactions in 897 companies and had 149 potential conflicts.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have come under fire for regularly trading millions — just this summer, Paul bought $5 million worth of shares in a semiconductor chip maker, days before a vote that handed $52 billion to semiconductor manufacturers.