‘It needs to be done,’ Representative Chip Roy said of the trading ban following Trump’s speech.
President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to call on members of Congress to pass legislation banning congressional stock trading, earning a standing ovation from congressional Republicans and Democrats inside the House chamber on an issue that has gained bipartisan traction in recent years.
“Members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” Trump said in his address.
The bipartisan applause offered a rare moment of legislative agreement on domestic policy at a time when Democrats are bitterly opposed to Trump’s second-term agenda. Trump notably received some pushback from the out-of-power party when he jabbed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom Republicans regularly criticize for her strong stock-market performance over the years.
“Let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” Trump said. “Did Nancy Pelosi stand up? … Doubt it.”
House Republicans have struggled thus far to unite the entire House GOP caucus behind Representative Bryan Steil’s “Stop Insider Trading Act” that would ban members of congress from buying additional individual stocks, though the legislation would allow them to invest in diversified funds. The legislation lacks widespread Democratic support as of now, though some high-profile congressional Democrats have introduced separate stock-trading bills in recent years as well.
“It needs to be done,” Representative Chip Roy, a co-sponsor of Steil’s bill, told NR after Trump’s speech. “We have a vast majority of Republicans who support it — varying degrees. Got a little bloc who don’t. You got Democrats. And now it’s just playing a dance of what we actually move.”
“There’s no question, when you as a member of Congress serving on these committees, you are privy to information that other people just are not aware of, including a simple thing, such as when something is going to pass,” Representative Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.), another co-sponsor of Steil’s bill, told National Review shortly after Trump’s remarks concluded.
Like Roy, he acknowledged that the bill has a long way to go until it reaches 60 votes in the Senate and 218 in the House, with a hefty chunk of Republicans still not on board with the effort. “I understand the argument that some members will make with respect to stocks that they came into Congress with could have been tied to a business that they own or ran,” Lawler added. “There is a reality that you have to deal with respect to assets somebody may may currently own, but I think we try to address that in the legislation that Bryan Steil has crafted.”
Also during his speech, Trump called on Congress to pass federal voter ID legislation and advance his health-care plan. Neither of those bills are expected to pass this year given the slim majorities in both chambers.