While he believes that some members of Congress have engaged in insider trading, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Newsmax Friday that all members should not be denied "their constitutional rights to own assets" because a few members have "a very low ethical standard."
On Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., voted to advance the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. If passed, the bill would ban members of Congress from trading or holding individual stocks.
During an appearance on "National Report," Donalds said he thinks Hawley's bill "needs to be amended" because there are a lot of members on Capitol Hill "who do not personally trade securities."
"We do have brokers who have trading authority, and I think this is important for the American people to understand," he said. "I'm going to talk personally. I have a trading account, it's my IRA. I have stocks in that portfolio. There are individual securities. My broker has trading authority."
"I could call in and make trades, but I do not do that. And if you check the notes of my broker, they would tell you he does not call in and initiate trades. As somebody who was in the industry, that's how we talk about it in the financial world, initiating the trade," Donalds added.
"So I think there has to be a blanket ban on members and their spouses or dependent or independent children initiating trades, but if you have a broker who has trading authority and they trade on your behalf, I think that's perfectly fine," Donalds said. "If you want to do the blind trust thing, OK, but my question is who's going to pay for it? If you're going to make a member sell their securities, like myself, am I not responsible for paying the taxes on that?"
Donalds stressed that "not every member of Congress is rich" and said that "if you do this job right, you actually lose money in the whole deal."
"I think for members like myself who have brokers, where the brokers have express trading authority and they trade on behalf of a member of Congress, I think that's fine because you don't have the member giving information to the broker, and that's the key thing," he said.
Donalds said he understands that Americans do not want members of Congress "making millions of dollars on insider information."
"That is wrong; that should be blocked," Donalds said. "But members of Congress also should not have the ability to own assets taken away from them simply because [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi[, D-Calif.,] and others have just a very low ethical standard."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.