U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Representative Chip Roy (R-TX), speaks at a news conference with a bipartisan group of House members to say they are prepared to force a vote on legislation to ban members of Congress and their families from trading stocks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 3, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
A ban on members of Congress and their families trading or owning stocks got new momentum Wednesday, after a bipartisan group of House members announced they had come to an agreement on a new bill.
The Restore Trust in Congress Act combines several different proposals into one vehicle that supporters say will focus the debate and lead to passage.
Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., one of the lead sponsors of the bill, said the fact that members of Congress are permitted to trade and own individual stocks makes “people go nuts, because it is crazy to the average person that this has been allowed to go on for so long.”
“We have reached a tipping point where the pressure from outside the building is becoming too much for leadership to deny,” he said during a press conference at the Capitol on Wednesday.
The bill’s supporters span the political spectrum – they include hardline conservative Republicans like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who is also leading the bill, and Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee; moderate Republicans like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; and progressive Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
The new bill would ban members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from owning, buying or trading individual stocks and other banned assets while in office — even if those assets are held in a blind trust.
It would also require lawmakers to sell any stocks, options, futures and commodities they own soon after being sworn into office. Any member who violates the ban would need to pay a fee equal to 10% of the value of the covered investment, and get rid of any profits from that investment.
The measure doesn’t include executive branch officials, including the president, unlike a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that was advanced by a committee in July but is unlikely to get a floor vote after it was criticized by President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has expressed general support for a ban in the past, but not any specific bill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said during the press conference Wednesday that if leadership didn’t bring a bill to the floor by the end of the month, she would force a vote on it though a procedural maneuver that would require a simple majority of the House – 218 lawmakers – to back it.
Despite the growing momentum in support of a ban, there’s still significant opposition to it — the same opposition that has thwarted past attempts to enact limits on congressional stock trading beyond those contained in the 2012 STOCK Act.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., was one of several lawmakers to argue during a July hearing that the measure would be a barrier that kept business owners and executives from running for public office.
“We have we have too many career politicians. We don’t have enough people who have experience in private sector,” Johnson said. “This piece of legislation would be hugely discouraging to people from the private sector coming here and serving.”
But supporters of the ban said that those who wanted to serve needed to put the country’s interests ahead of their own.
“If you want to trade stocks go to Wall Street,” Luna said Wednesday. “Don’t go to Congress.”