Fitzpatrick, Perry join bipartisan group with bill to ban congressional stock trading

A bipartisan group of House members that includes Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-01) and Scott Perry (R-10) unveiled a compromise bill to ban stock trading by individual members of Congress and their families on Wednesday.

Entitled the “Restore Trust in Congress Act,” the legislation combines several previously introduced bills to ban congressional stock trading by members of Congress.

Fitzpatrick and Perry were joined at a news conference by Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) among others.

Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-08), who has been under the media microscope for his stock trading since assuming office in early January, was not part of the bipartisan group. Bresnahan, who introduced H.R. 3182 in May to prohibit the trading of stocks by congressional members and their families, did not receive any cosponsors to his bill. According to CapitolTrades.com, the NEPA representative has reported 629 stock trades, including 190 in information technology and 103 in healthcare.

The bill would not only bar members and their spouses and dependent children from trading, but also from owning individual stocks. It allows members who sell their stock to defer paying taxes from the sale if they reinvest in a mutual fund. It would also impose a 10% penalty — and force the surrendering of profits — for certain offenses, a significant strengthening of current penalties.

“Members of Congress have access to inside information,” said Fitzpatrick. “Just by being on the floor of the House, [members] have a much more clear purview being behind the curtain. For anybody in this institution to trade off that information is illegal and unethical, both. This is beyond an 80-20 issue. This is a 95-5 issue and the five that are against it are probably day trading. We will find a way to get this to the floor one way or another.”

“I do feel like this is different,” Jayapal told reporters. “I feel like we are really at a place where we brought all the bills together, and we are going to, as Brian [Fitzpatrick] said, we are going to get it to the floor, whether it’s through whatever process that looks like.”

“There is a lack of trust in government and this is an opportunity to earn some of that trust back,” said Perry. “This is one of the times when the American people and Congress can get a win. Nobody drafted anybody, nobody made you run for Congress. You decided you wanted to serve and your ran. Coming to Washington D.C. and serve is not about deciding what you can get. It is about what you can give.”

Bresnahan is not the lone representative of the Commonwealth to draw attention to his portfolio. The existing Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act has tripped up Rep. Dan Meuser (R-09) as well as Rep. Dwight Evans (D-03).

The bill does only focus on Congress, according to Roy, although he believes it has a great deal of support for the inclusion of the executive branch as well.

Both Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have said they would support a ban on members trading individual stocks.

Steve Ulrich is the managing editor of PoliticsPA, where this article first appeared.