Updated May 2, 2025 at 3:32 PM EDT
President Trump and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., don't agree on much. But their public support of legislation to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks could revive prospects for a bipartisan effort that's stalled on Capitol Hill for years.
Earlier in April around Trump's tariff announcement, a flurry of lawmakers' stock trades raised questions about whether they got any advance notice.
Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the members whose trades have attracted scrutiny. According to House disclosure filings, Greene purchased between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock around the tariff announcements. She also disclosed more trades around the news that Trump was pausing many of the tariffs for 90 days. Some of the specific stocks she purchased increased in value significantly.
Greene's office did not respond to a request for comment, but she recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her financial adviser handles her trades. More disclosures about lawmakers' investment moves around the tariffs are expected later this month.
Trades like those are not surprising to lawmakers advocating for the ban.
"I think that this happens all the time. I do think that it makes the point," Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told NPR. He introduced legislation to bar lawmakers from investing in individual stocks. He backed a bipartisan bill last year that made it through committee but never got a floor vote.
"The truth is, both parties — members of both parties — enjoy trading stock and enjoy the profits they get off of it," he said. "This is something that we ought to set aside for the good of the American people. It is a distraction at best. It is a source of potential corruption at worst."
Trump reinvigorated efforts to change the law last week when he told Time magazine that he would sign a bill that ends the ability of members of Congress to buy or sell individual stocks — "absolutely."
Hawley sees that development as "hugely helpful" and "a big deal."
"It takes away a talking point of some people who say, 'Oh, it doesn't matter if we pass it, this will never get signed.' He said he would sign it," Hawley said in the interview.
Bipartisan support grows
Hawley also noted that a lot of members campaigned on the issue in 2024 — and he's going to those who talked about it to urge them to sponsor his bill. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., led the effort in the last Congress, and Hawley says he's talking to him and other senators from both parties about pressing for a vote on the floor.
Rhode Island Democrat Rep. Seth Magaziner, the lead sponsor on a bipartisan House proposal, points out that Jeffries — the top House Democrat — became the first leader of either party to endorse a ban recently.
"I think we've gained more momentum in the last two weeks than had been achieved in the last two years," Magaziner says. Jeffries' predecessor, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, initially opposed proposals to change rules around congressional trading. She eventually backed the reforms, but never put a bill on the House floor. Jeffries says he hasn't talked to other leaders about moving a bill but argues that this is something he's "long supported."
Magaziner told NPR that "we clearly have a surge of momentum, and now we need to capitalize on it."
He says he and Democrats like New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are working across the aisle with Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania to build support and finalize details that meld different bill versions into one that could advance with significant support.
"This is going to happen at some point, like the public supports it in polling by a 90 to 10 margin," he says. "It's one of the highest polling issues I have ever seen." Magaziner says chatter has picked up on the House floor, and it's consistently an issue constituents raise back home at town halls.
He acknowledged the issue has been building support behind the scenes over time. But now he believes a combination of factors build political pressure for action.
Attention to trades around tariffs and Trump comments key factors as speaker says he's "open" to a vote
Magaziner called news around Trump's tariffs a "catalyst," saying "whether anybody with inside information traded off of those announcements or not, they were just a very stark example of what could be possible when it comes to insider trading in Washington."
And he said for his GOP colleagues, "it's all about President Trump, right? President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. They pay a lot of attention to what he says. And the president was very clear that this is something he supports."
He argues that the ball is in House Speaker Mike Johnson's court.
For his part, Johnson told NPR that he is not opposed to the idea and if there's a consensus, he'll act on it.
"It's been talked about for quite some time. But there's probably a reason that the bill hasn't moved in all those years because there's never been a consensus built around it," he said. "But, I mean, I'm open to the conversation."
Johnson also noted he personally does trade stocks.
Rep. Roy told NPR he's given the speaker some time to get through the process of passing the big bill with the bulk of Trump's tax, border and energy agenda. But on the congressional trading bill, he said "we're well past time to do it" and insisted "we're going to have a vote on the floor of the United States House this year."
Hawley named his bill the "PELOSI act" — Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act — a dig at the former speaker, who doesn't trade personally but under the law reports regular investments from her husband, Paul, whose portfolio is among the top performing of lawmakers and their spouses.
But Hawley notes that Republican senators were investigated about their trades during the COVID-19 pandemic because of information they learned in briefings.
Those members were ultimately cleared, but Hawley says "members of Congress really do have advantages in the way that they are presented with information." He said he doesn't believe it necessarily means they are engaging in insider trading but says the information is "sort of served up to you on a silver platter and all of that is true, which is why we ought to ban it."
Proposals cover lawmakers and spouses
Both the House and Senate bills would ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks. Hawley says there's resistance from members of both parties.
Magaziner said he believes some just don't want to give up the ability to make money. But he adds, "there are plenty of other members who are not active stock traders but have honest questions about, well, hey, if this passes, will I still be able to save for retirement? Will I still be able to save for my kid's college tuition? And the answer is yes."
The proposals set out a transition period for current lawmakers to shift to either blind trusts or mutual funds. And they lay out a similar period for newly elected members to divest.
Some argue current rules that require lawmakers to disclose any trades of stocks over $1,000 within 30 days are a sufficient guardrail.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pointed to those rules when asked by NPR about his position.
"We'll see how this, how this conversation evolves. I mean, we get some members up here on both sides, out both sides of the Capitol as you know, who would like more strict limitations on that. But there are some pretty good, I would say, protections in place already."
Proponents admit their chances of moving forward mean they have to address concerns around how the rules impact people who have investments who want to run for Congress but worry about being forced to divest and take a financial loss or tax penalty.
And they say they need to iron out details about how lawmakers would divest in a new system and educate their colleagues about how it will all work.
Hawley dismissed the argument that changing ethics rules about investing would impact the kinds of people willing to run for elected office. "I would say that serving is a privilege. And if you are not willing to serve in Congress because you can't day trade anymore, maybe this isn't the right job for you."
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