Josh Hawley's bill would ban lawmakers from holding stock

By 
 January 25, 2023

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised eyebrows last year when her husband, Paul Pelosi, bought $5 million worth of stock in a semiconductor company just as the Senate was set to pass a bill subsidizing the industry.

Yet in what could be a nightmare scenario for Pelosi and others like her, one lawmaker is trying to make such moves illegal. 

Bill would ban lawmakers and their spouses from owning stock

According to Breitbart, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley recently introduced a piece of legislation which bears the former House speaker's name.

Known as the Preventing "Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act," the bill seeks to ban members of Congress along with their spouses from holding, acquiring, or selling individual stocks during their time in office.

The bill gives lawmakers and their spouses to a six-month grace period to either sell their stocks or place them in a blind trust.

"For too long, politicians in Washington have taken advantage of the economic system they write the rules for, turning profits for themselves at the expense of the American people," Breitbart quoted Hawley as saying in a statement.

Hawley says members of Congress play by different rules

"As members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives are tasked with providing oversight of the same companies they invest in, yet they continually buy and sell stocks, outperforming the market time and again," the conservative senator continued.

"While Wall Street and Big Tech work hand-in-hand with elected officials to enrich each other, hardworking Americans pay the price," Hawley said.

He concluded by declaring that "[t]he solution is clear: we must immediately and permanently ban all members of Congress from trading stocks."

Left-wing activist critical of Pelosi's actions

The Daily Caller noted in an article published last July that Paul Pelosi's stock trading has not just left Republicans feeling troubled.

His decision to purchase 20,000 shares of the California-based semiconductor firm Nvidia just before lawmakers voted on a $52 billion semiconductor subsidy bill also bothered Craig Holman.

Holman, who serves as a government affairs lobbyist for the left-leaning think tank Public Citizen voiced suspicion over Pelosi's actions.

"It certainly raises the specter that Paul Pelosi could have access to some insider legislative information," Holman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

"This is the reason why there is a stock trading app that exclusively monitors Paul’s trading activity and then its followers do likewise," he went on to point out.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson
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