A measure to ban members of Congress and their immediate families from trading individual stocks could get a forced vote after Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a discharge petition Tuesday to circumvent House GOP leadership.
Luna is seeking to compel House leaders to bring the Restore Trust in Congress Act to the floor.
The bill would require lawmakers to divest or place their assets in blind trusts, and its backers argue it would close loopholes that have drawn persistent criticism from ethics advocates and voters.
Luna had warned for months that she would seek a procedural end run if leadership did not accelerate action.
"We have decided because of a lack of movement from the House of Representatives to initiate the discharge petition on banning insider trading," Luna said in a video posted on X.
"If leadership wants to put forward a bill that would actually do that and end the corruption, we're all for it."
The petition centers on a bipartisan proposal introduced earlier this year by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I.
In a joint statement, the sponsors warned that momentum was building.
"The clock is now running. If leadership does not move quickly to put forward a strong ban on congressional stock trading, the members of the body will act," they wrote.
A discharge petition requires signatures from 218 members to succeed, a threshold rarely met because it publicly challenges party leadership.
Still, the tool has gained traction in the current Congress, where conservative lawmakers have increasingly used it to force action on issues they argue leaders are slow-walking.
The mechanism was most recently deployed in a campaign to compel the release of Justice Department records related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
If the current petition secures enough signatures, leadership could attempt to neutralize it through a separate majority vote, a maneuver employed earlier this year to block Luna's petition on proxy voting for lawmakers who are new parents.
Luna and Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., immediately signed the petition. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said she planned to add her name, and Luna said on social media that Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., had also pledged to join.
The issue has drawn broad bipartisan interest, especially after public trackers documented unusually strong market returns among some lawmakers and their spouses.
Advocates for a trading ban argue that public confidence in Congress hinges on eliminating any perception that lawmakers can profit from privileged information.
Opposition persists, however, including among members who have not received a salary increase since 2009 and say a ban could further limit financial flexibility.
The House Administration Committee held a hearing last month to examine enforcement gaps in the STOCK Act, a 2012 law that requires public disclosure of trades and clarifies that members are subject to insider trading rules.
The committee has not advanced legislation, leaving the discharge petition as the most immediate pathway to a floor vote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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