House Republican leaders on Thursday committed to a vote in the new year on legislation to ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks.
But the proposal likely will not include a provision that would ban stock trading or ownership by President Donald Trump or future presidents.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said members had been working for months on a bill that would move through committee and get a vote on the floor.
“We want to get that done,” Scalise said.
He did not say whether the legislation would extend to the executive branch, a sticking point for Democrats who want to prioritize that.
Others said it likely would not.
“This would just address Congress,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., as she left a meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other Republicans like her who want a trading ban.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said, “We will be getting a vote on the floor sometime in January … no more insider trading.”
Leadership’s commitment comes a day after House Democrats introduced their own proposal to ban lawmakers, as well as presidents and vice presidents, from owning or trading individual stock.
The Democrats’ maneuver risks derailing an effort that to date had been largely bipartisan.
Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., who introduced that bill with the backing of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats in the new year will file a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill.
A discharge petition is a procedural tool that allows rank-and-file members to bypass leadership and force a vote if a majority of House members sign on. The tactic had been rarely used before this year.
At a press conference Thursday, Jeffries said, “There is absolutely no justification for the president, who has far more power than any individual member of Congress, or the vice president, to be able to trade stocks in real time when they have more access to inside information than perhaps the entire United States Congress combined.”
Luna, with the support of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, recently filed her own discharge petition on a separate proposal related to stock trading.
The bill, subject to that petition, which was submitted by Magaziner and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would not include the executive branch.
Seventy-four members had signed Luna’s discharge petition as of Thursday.
It is already illegal for members of Congress and the president to trade on inside information.
But the law is rarely enforced, and the perception persists that lawmakers are profiting off information gleaned from their government positions.
The issue gained increased attention in 2020, when a group of lawmakers made a series of trades at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
No member of Congress was charged for their trading activity at the time.
More questions were raised earlier this year when some lawmakers, including then-Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., purchased stocks just before Trump announced a pause on tariffs.
Trump has supported a ban on members of Congress trading in individual stocks.
But the president over the summer lashed out at Sen. Josh Hawley for that Missouri Republican’s proposal that such a ban include the president.
After that criticism, Hawley’s bill was amended by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to say the trading ban would apply only to future presidents, not Trump.
The committee advanced that bill with bipartisan support in July. The full Senate has yet to vote on it.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Johnson, the House speaker, has recently seen three discharge petitions succeed and force a vote over his objections.
This week, House members obtained enough signatures for a petition to force a vote to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies. That vote has yet to be held.
And recently, they forced a floor vote mandating that the Department of Justice release files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Those files are expected to be released on Friday.
Luna said she would not drop her discharge petition even if Johnson allows a vote on a ban bill.
Magaziner is encouraging members to sign both petitions.
“I am going to sign both discharge petitions, and I’m hopeful that one of them will get over the threshold to come to the floor,” Magaziner said.