The proposed law that Sen. Josh Hawley named after former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) would ban lawmakers and their spouses from holding or trading individual stocks and require they return their profits to American taxpayers if found in violation.
In 2022, it was widely reported that Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi held shares of a company that manufactured microchips and then sold millions of dollars worth of the shares at a time when the House was about to vote on a bill pertaining to the U.S. chip manufacturing industry.
“While Wall Street and Big Tech work hand-in-hand with elected officials to enrich each other, hardworking Americans pay the price,” Hawley said in a statement. “The solution is clear: we must immediately and permanently ban all members of Congress from trading stocks.”
If approved, the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act would exempt holdings in diversified mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or U.S. Treasury bonds.
Within six months of assuming office, lawmakers and their spouses would be required to divest any prohibited holdings or place those holdings in a blind trust for the remainder of their tenure in office
“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,” Hawley said.
Pelosi’s husband isn’t the only lawmaker’s spouse who is accused of insider trading.
Last year, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust called for an investigation into Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) alleging that following his wife’s purchase of Amgen stock, which increased in price by 24 percent, a week before presumably because a week before, the Department of Health and Human Services acquired $290 million worth of the Amgen medication, Nplate, in the event of radiological emergencies.
“Given the information that they have access to, under the ethics rules, Members of Congress who sit on committees must meet a higher standard,” said Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT. “Every time the public sees a transaction like this it causes them to question the motivation of our elected officials – something the ethics rules are specifically designed to prevent.”
Blumenauer is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and its health subcommittee, which may have given him advanced insider knowledge that the drug was being purchased by the U.S. government as it takes action to prepare in the event of a nuclear attack, according to FACT.
"Blumenauer’s role on the subcommittee requires that a strict conflict of interest analysis applies because it involves direct oversight and a high degree of advocacy," wrote Arnold in her complaint to Omar Ashmawy, chief counsel in the Office of Congressional Ethics at the U.S. House of Representatives.