‘A Clown Show’: GOP Sen Teams Up With Dems To Advance Stock Trading Ban
A bipartisan group of senators advanced legislation Wednesday morning that would place new restrictions on lawmakers, the president and vice president from trading or holding individual stocks — over the fierce…
A bipartisan group of senators advanced legislation Wednesday morning that would place new restrictions on lawmakers, the president and vice president from trading or holding individual stocks — over the fierce objections of most Senate Republicans on the panel.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley voted with Senate Democrats 8 to 7 to pass the proposed stock trading ban out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The majority of Republicans on the panel vigorously opposed the effort, arguing that it unfairly targeted the wealthy and infringed on President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s authority — despite the measure carving out an exception for the current administration.
“We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted us to do for decades, and that is to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that, frankly, only members of Congress have in the buying and selling of stock,” Hawley said during debate over proposed stock trading ban. “ of Americans say that members of Congress should not be able to buy and sell shares of stock, individual stock, while they are members of this body, and they are absolutely correct.”
“This idea that we’re going to attack people who make money is wrong,” Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott said during debate over the measure. “We should cherish all of our different backgrounds.”
“I think it’s disgusting what is going on here,” Scott continued. “I completely agree with you — we’ve got to stop people from trading stocks, but this is way different. This is an attack against the president, an attack against the vice president.”