Watson Coleman Votes to Reject Sham Stock Trading Bill

Watson Coleman Votes to Reject Sham Stock Trading Bill

Today, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) voted to reject a Speaker Johnson-endorsed measure that purported to ban members of Congress from trading stocks but in fact failed to address insider trading.

The so-called "Stop Insider Trading Act," which has been promoted as a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, fails to actually end the ownership or sale of stock by members.

The American people deserve to be confident that their members of Congress do not trade stocks held in industries they oversee nor profit from insider information on upcoming legislation or regulations of those industries.

The bill, H.R. 7008, which has been endorsed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and President Trump, allows members of Congress to keep the stocks they already hold and sell them when it is most financially advantageous. The bill also allows Members and their families to purchase certain securities and privately traded stocks.

In addition, H.R. 7008 includes an unrelated strict voter ID provision that requires a very narrow set of acceptable photo ID to cast a ballot and would functionally gut mail voting. The bill also does nothing to address the well reported insider trading by President Trump and his family or other members of the Administration.

"This piece of legislation does nothing to assure Americans that members of Congress are putting the interests of their constituents above their own financial self-interests," said Watson Coleman. "I will not play political games with the confidence of the public in their representatives so that Republicans can spend the August recess lying to their constituents. Sadly, this bogus legislation is what we've come to expect from the most corrupt, self-dealing President in my lifetime and his enablers in Congress."

Congresswoman Watson Coleman does not currently own or trade any stock.