GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Tim Burchett of Tennessee pledged Wednesday to pressure House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders to advance a bill banning stock trading by members of Congress in the coming weeks, Politico reported.
The lawmakers were at a press conference outside the House Administration Committee hearing room, where academics were preparing to testify about the details of current stock- trade ethics enforcement.
Fitzpatrick and Burchett, alongside Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, have been urging Congress to crack down on member stock trading and insisted that they will not be content to settle only for a hearing on the topic.
But they got only a modest victory with Johnson's willingness to allow a committee to convene a hearing on the divisive topic, according to Politico.
Undeterred, the four lawmakers are doubling down in their attempts to make sure the chamber also debates, amends, and takes a floor vote on actual legislation — either the compromise proposal requiring legislators to divest from individual stocks, which the four lawmakers co-sponsored with a bipartisan coalition in September, or another version with similarly strong restrictions.
House Republican leaders are concerned, however, that a bipartisan bill or a similar measure will be opposed by many Republicans, including some who insist that stock trading is an important source of income for themselves and their families.
Despite this, Fitzpatrick warned that members' individual stock performance will be part of the discussions in hearings on any stock-trading bill.
Fitzpatrick added that "part of the fact finding is what members have done in terms of trading, sometimes on a daily basis."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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