Sen Hawley Calls For Hearing To Ban Insider Trading In Congress After Pelosi Stock Trades

Republican Senator Josh Hawley (MO) has sent a letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) Chairman Gary Peters (D-MI) requesting a hearing to consider bipartisan proposals to ban insider stock trading by Congress members and their spouses.

The letter came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband Paul Pelosi purchased as much as $5 million shares of the computer chip company Nvidia just weeks before Congress is set to vote on a bill that would grant billions of dollars in subsidies to the semiconductor industry.

“This issue of whether and how Members of Congress engage in various financial transactions deserves scrutiny by the Committee. For example, recent reports show that Speaker Pelosi’s family continues to engage in what is arguably inappropriate stock trading activities,” Hawley wrote. “According to reports, her husband Paul Pelosi recently purchased 20,000 shares of Nvidia, a multinational semiconductor company, worth between $1 million and $5 million. This trade came ahead of a likely vote in the Senate that could set aside $52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and give tax credits for production.”

“This specific trade raises serious questions, but it’s nothing new,” he continued. “Last year, Speaker Pelosi’s biggest financial gains came from her husband exercising options to purchase shares of Google just one week before the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on antitrust legislation that would impact Big Tech companies. In 2020, Speaker Pelosi and her husband outperformed the S&P 500 by a whopping 14.3 percent.”

“It has been more than six months since members of this Committee proposed measures to put an end to inappropriate financial transactions. Despite these efforts, Speaker Pelosi and her husband remain undeterred from cashing in,” Hawley added. “More than 70% of Americans agree that this is unacceptable and that Congress shouldn’t be trading stocks at all.  After all, clean government in Washington begins with Members of Congress putting the American people first—and not lining their own pockets.”