Longtime ally of California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Virginia Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger recently shocked many by joining Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy in pushing legislation to prohibit members of Congress from trading securities while in office.

“At the heart of the issue: Senators and representatives regularly get classified briefings about subjects that impact the markets and they’re able to use that information, which the rest of the public doesn’t have, to buy, sell, trade, and profit. Spanberger and Republican Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, a co-sponsor of the bill, both said it’s fundamentally unfair and should be criminalized,” News Nation reported. “The legislation would require members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children to put certain investment assets into a qualified blind trust while the member is in office.”

In a scathing statement, the Democrat lawmaker asserted, “We have waited far too long to vote on legislation prohibiting members of Congress and their spouses from trading individual securities. In the previous Congress, the TRUST in Congress Act received the most support from both parties. We witnessed tremendous momentum, growing support in our districts, and growing recognition across the political spectrum that this reform must be implemented immediately. I’m proud to have led the charge on this issue, and I’d like to appreciate my colleague Congressman Roy for his continued support as we work to reduce potential conflicts of interest in the halls of Congress. Our TRUST in Congress Act would demonstrate that legislators are committed to serving the American people rather than their own stock portfolios.”

Particularly, Pelosi has been criticized multiple times for her controversial and well-timed stock trades.

Pelosi drew attention with another well-timed stock transaction. Pelosi disclosed a sale of approximately 30,000 shares of Google stock in late December, roughly three weeks before the Justice Department and eight states announced an antitrust litigation against Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

The Daily Beast noted that Pelosi and other Democrats “dragged their feet last year and ultimately did nothing” to pass legislation prohibiting stock trades by lawmakers as Pelosi’s spouse amassed suspiciously large profits from suspiciously well-timed transactions.

Several Democrats also support a bill of some sort to resolve this issue.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, of the Republican Party, stated that many Democrats support the proposal and are amenable to working out the specifics.

“We’re not getting any sharp pushback,” said Fitzpatrick, who co-chairs the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus. “It’s more like the devil’s-in-the-details kind of thing.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) joined forces with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and others last month on a bill to prohibit members of Congress and their families from stock trading.

“The bill, the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, would prohibit financial investments by members of Congress, their spouses, and any of their dependents. It continues a string of legislation that has been introduced over the past few years to target the issue,” The Hill reported.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has previously stated that an investigation will be conducted into Pelosi’s stock transactions.

More on this story via Conservative Brief:

“I would look through it,” he said of the Democrat proposal to ban stock trading for spouses of Congress members. “What I’ve told everybody is we will come back, and we will not only investigate this, we will come back with a proposal to change the current behavior.” CONTINUE READING…