From September 12, 2022 post
Today, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) sent a bipartisan letter to House leadership reiterating their previous calls to hold a vote on legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress.
“As we work to ensure no members of Congress are profiting off their work with stock trades, continued delays in bringing legislation to the floor are unacceptable,” said Congressman Pappas. “Violations of the STOCK Act and reports of potential conflicts of interest make it clear that we must strengthen existing laws. There should be no reason for Speaker Pelosi to delay this process, and I urge House leadership to bring legislation to the floor and call a vote.”
"One's time in Congress should be a temporary public service, and those serving in the People's House must avoid any and all appearances of conflicts," said Congressman Fitzpatrick. "Holding a vote on the House floor on banning Members of Congress from trading stocks while in office is long overdue. The failure of Congress to end these flagrant and frequent violations of the STOCK Act diminishes any sense of trust or transparency that the American people deserve to expect from their elected officials. Once again, I am insisting that leadership takes immediate action on this issue, and I am strongly encouraging all of my House colleagues to stand together to demand the same in the spirit of transparency and bipartisanship."
Pappas broke with Democratic House leadership in support of the stock trading ban in 2021, and after his advocacy, Speaker Pelosi reversed course and announced legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress would be considered by the House. He supports and has helped lead several pieces of legislation to make these needed reforms.
Pappas is a co-sponsor of H.R. 336, the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust in Congress (TRUST) Act. This bill requires a Member of Congress, as well as any spouse or dependent child of a Member, to place specified investments into a qualified blind trust until 180 days after the end of their tenure as a Member of Congress.
Pappas has also co-sponsored H.R.1579, the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, which would prohibit members of Congress from certain financial activities while holding office, including purchasing or selling specified investments and entering into a transaction that creates a net short position in a security, and H.R.8106, the Fighting Foreign Influence Act, which would curb foreign influence and close the revolving door of former members of Congress and senior government officials who lobby on behalf of foreign governments, in many cases with adversarial relationships with the United States, when their public service ends.
The full text of the letter can be found here and below:
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer:
We write to urge you to hold a vote to ban stock trading by members of Congress during the September legislative period.
With so few voting days remaining this year, it is critical that we act to ensure that members of Congress are held to the same standards as the constituents they represent. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to bring a bill addressing this issue to the floor this month.
This commonsense action is even more urgent in light of the fact 72 members of Congress have violated the STOCK Act. We must strengthen existing law to make sure that no member of Congress or their family can profit off information they get from public service.
We have been glad to see recent momentum towards preventing such violations with public hearings. But the fact remains that each day that passes is another day that elected officials could appear to use their public service for personal profit.
Americans deserve to know with certainty that members of Congress are being held to the highest possible standard. We respectfully urge you to schedule a vote on a bill as soon as possible in the limited time remaining to act.
Sincerely
Original source can be found here.
