GOP hardliners may be the next best hope for banning Congress from trading stocks

• There's been little movement in recent years, especially in the House, on banning stock trading.
• That could change this year, with a group of hardline Republicans now pushing the issue.
• "I need to put my foot on the gas a little bit," said Rep. Chip Roy. "Let's deal with it."

For years, lawmakers in both parties have tried to pass legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.

It's popular with the American public. Both outgoing President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump support it. A bipartisan group of senators came together around a single stock trading ban bill this past summer, and two years ago, the House almost took a vote on a bill hastily put forward by House Democratic leadership.

However, an actual floor vote in either chamber has long remained elusive. Now, some hardline House Republicans are hoping to change that.

"I'm tired of my colleagues sticking their heads in the sand on it. It needs to be dealt with, sooner rather than later," Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Business Insider in a brief interview on Friday.

Roy and 10 other members of the House Freedom Caucus board sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday expressing their "sincere reservations" with his tenure. Many of those lawmakers initially withheld their votes for Johnson, only to relent out of deference to Trump.

In that letter, the GOP hardliners outlined a series of rule changes they wanted to see, along with policy items that they expected Johnson to put up for a vote. Among those items: Ending stock trading by members of Congress.

"If that's what it takes to gain some confidence by the public in the fact that members of Congress work ethically, then I think that's a small price to pay," Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told BI.

Roy has long been the leader GOP cosponsor of one of the leading bills to ban stock trading, the TRUST in Congress Act, and he told BI that it was his idea to add that demand to the letter. He also happens to be one of Johnson's chief critics, and could — in coordination with the other Republicans — threaten the speaker with a vote on his ouster if the House doesn't take up that legislation.

As of now, it's not clear whether that will happen. Roy said that banning lawmakers from trading stocks is "not as existential to the functioning of the average American family on a daily basis" as some of the other priorities laid out in the letter, including steep cuts to federal spending and enacting tough border security and immigration measures.

The Texas Republican did express frustration with the lack of progress on the issue over the last several years while hinting that this year could be different.

"It's been sitting out there for three or four years, we kind of keep dragging feet, and it's time to deal with it," said Roy. "I need to put my foot on the gas a little bit, and so I'm putting my foot on the gas."

As of now, Roy says that "foot on the gas" involves laying out the demand and talking with Johnson and other relevant committee chairs about moving the legislation.

Johnson, for his part, has not publicly expressed a position on a stock trading ban, and a spokesperson did not provide a position when contacted by Business Insider on Monday. His predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, did express support for a stock trading ban.

"The perception of Congress, whether true or not, is that some may take advantage of insider information," Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, another Freedom Caucus letter signatory, told BI. "This is a gesture to say, 'Hey, look, we're not treated any differently.'"

Despite widespread agreement on the principle, the details of an eventual ban aren't widely agreed upon, and different bills propose different things. Some legislation would ban the ownership of stocks altogether, but Ogles said that "active day-trading" is the real problem.

"It doesn't mean you can't own stock, so that you can't have mutual funds," Ogles said.

Meanwhile, some House Freedom Caucus members still trade stocks, and one — Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida — violated a federal law requiring timely disclosure of stock trades in the fall of 2024.

A September 2024 report from the Campaign Legal Center found that 44% of House members and 54% of senators own stock.