The House plans to vote early next year on a congressional stock-trading ban after Republicans reached a compromise under which the ban would apply only to lawmakers, not the president or vice president.
"I think we're going to deliver a really strong product in 2026," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told The Washington Times.
Roy declined to discuss specifics but said the legislation will include "a lot of elements" of his Restore Trust in Congress Act, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., and 118 others.
The bill would ban members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from owning or trading stocks, securities, commodities, futures, or comparable financial assets.
It would also require lawmakers to divest such assets within 180 days of the bill's enactment, with future lawmakers forced to do so within 90 days of taking office.
Roy said the final legislation will be a product of the Republican conference and expressed hope it will attract bipartisan support.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill, but support for it remains well short of the 218 signatures required.
Leading House Republicans and Democrats opposed the petition and are floating separate proposals, according to the Times.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he would not back the legislation unless it also banned presidents, vice presidents, and their spouses from trading stocks.
Magaziner introduced a bill this week that included such a provision and reportedly said he plans to launch a discharge petition to force a vote.
"There is absolutely no justification for the president, who has far more power than any individual member of Congress, or the vice president to be able to trade stocks in real time when they have more access to inside information than perhaps the entire United States Congress combined as it relates to regulatory activity," Magaziner said.
Jeffries told reporters that Democrats are first focused on securing a vote on a discharge petition to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years.
That petition reached the required 218 signatures Wednesday, though the vote cannot take place until the House returns Jan. 6. The subsidies are set to expire Dec. 31.
"The executive branch has rules," Roy said. "Right now, we're trying to just focus on cleaning up our own mess, and then we can try to look elsewhere if we need to."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met Thursday with Roy, Luna, and other Republicans pushing the stock-trading ban, including Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
The lawmakers left the meeting confident the emerging legislation would achieve their goal of banning congressional stock trading.
"I think it would be stupid for any member of Congress to not vote for this," Luna said, according to the Times. "It is the most bipartisan issue. Now, we have to make sure that the Senate does it too."
Luna said the executive branch already has stronger stock-trading restrictions than Congress.
"If Congress had these same rules for stock trading as the executive branch, there wouldn't be insider trading," she said.
President Donald Trump has said he would sign a congressional stock-trading ban if one reached his desk.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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