by Ben Whedon
Analysis from the New York Times revealed that 97 current U.S. senators or representatives reported stock trades either they or their immediate families made involving firms working in sectors that overlapped with their committee assignments.
Between the years 2019 and 2021, more than 3,700 reported trades involved such potential conflicts of interest, the outlet found.
The STOCK Act allows members of Congress to trade stocks and bonds as long as they do not use inside information and disclose any transactions by them or their family amounting to $1,000 or more within 45 days, the Times noted.
The 3,700 trades the outlet highlighted amounted to more than 10% of total reported trades. Moreover, the Times found that 13 lawmakers or their families bought or sold shares of companies their committees were investigating during the analysis’s three-year purview.
The outlet further highlighted the independent wealth of congressional spouses and their activities as a source of many of the questionable transactions. It notably did not address financial transactions by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or her husband due to the speaker not sitting on any committees.
Republicans and Democrats both have made pushes to tighten restrictions on stock trading for incumbent lawmakers. The Times, in particular, highlighted a measure from Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy to require the placement of lawmakers’ assets into blind trusts.
“The American people don’t want us day trading for profit, and engaging in active trading of the very equities that are connected to the policies that we are deciding on and voting on every day,” he said.
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Ben Whedon is the night editor for the Just the News. He came to the company from Breitbart News and is a graduate of Washington and Lee University.
