Nancy Pelosi raked in $4.7 million in a single day of trading. Senator Tommy Tuberville sold Apple stock just before President Trump announced tariffs, avoiding a steep loss. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene quietly snapped up tech stocks right before tariff suspensions boosted their value. Coincidence? Not likely. The swamp creatures in Washington, D.C., seem to have found yet another lucrative side hustle: insider trading.
For decades, politicians on both sides of the aisle have cashed in on privileged information gathered from their positions of power. While you and I struggle to build retirement savings or send our kids to college, far too many members of Congress get richer and richer, seemingly immune from the market forces that affect everyday Americans. This isn’t capitalism—it’s cronyism at its worst, eroding public trust and undermining the integrity of our political institutions.
The 2012 STOCK Act was supposed to put an end to these shady practices by forbidding insider trading and requiring timely disclosures of stock trades by members of Congress. Yet, Pelosi and her ilk appear undeterred, continuing to post gains that would make Wall Street’s top hedge fund managers blush. As Richard Eidlin, policy director of Business for America, recently warned in the Washington Examiner, “This type of financial activity by members of Congress … making financial decisions while also acting as regulators and policymakers presents tremendous conflicts of interest.”
More troubling still, these suspiciously timed trades span both parties, from Republicans like Tuberville and Greene to high-profile Democrats like Pelosi. The corruption isn’t partisan; it’s institutional. And it’s about time we put an end to it once and for all.
Fortunately, momentum is building on Capitol Hill to stop this disgraceful behavior. Representative Seth Magaziner (D-RI) has proposed the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust in Congress Act, which would require members to place their investments in blind trusts—effectively removing any temptation to exploit insider information. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has introduced an even tougher bill: the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities Act, which would ban members of Congress and their spouses outright from trading individual stocks. Hawley’s bill wisely allows investment only in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and Treasury bonds, eliminating any chance for insider profiteering.
This movement has united unlikely allies, from the far-left Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to stalwart conservatives like Chip Roy and members of the House Freedom Caucus. Even President Trump has thrown his weight behind the legislation, declaring unequivocally that he’d sign a ban into law: “I watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information, and I would be OK with it. If they send that to me, I would do it.”
But despite widespread bipartisan and popular support for cracking down on congressional insider trading, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) remains noncommittal, seemingly content to let this corruption fester. “We’ll see how this conversation evolves,” Thune recently told NPR, dismissively adding that there are “pretty good protections in place already.” Tell that to everyday Americans who watch politicians rake in millions while their own investments stagnate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), however, has taken a clear and principled stance, rightly observing, “I don’t think we should have any appearance of impropriety here.” Johnson understands what Thune apparently does not: that Americans have had enough of politicians enriching themselves at our expense.
This isn’t about restricting anyone’s freedom to invest. It’s about restoring integrity and fairness to the marketplace and to our political system. Members of Congress are elected to serve the American people—not to line their pockets using privileged information. Passing a robust ban on congressional insider trading is the kind of common-sense, America First reform that Americans across the spectrum can support.
President Trump is ready to sign the bill. The American people overwhelmingly demand it. It’s time for Congress to finally clean house and end the swamp’s favorite insider trading racket once and for all.