Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has pledged to introduce a discharge petition for a bill to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort to force a vote on the House floor for the longtime issue.
Dozens of bills have been introduced to ban congressional stock trading, which remains popular among the public, but none have reached the House floor for a full vote. Luna plans on changing that.
“The idea that a discharge petition is ‘only a tool of the minority’ is just an excuse to keep power consolidated in the hands of people who don’t actually want your member of Congress to legislate or fight for you,” Luna wrote in a post on X.
The House is out of session for a six-week district work period and is set to return to Washington in the first week of September, when Luna said she would bring the petition forward. Her office did not comment to the Washington Examiner on when she plans to bring it forward.
Some Republicans have expressed frustration with Luna’s effort to force the speaker to put the bill on the floor, one senior GOP House staffer told the Washington Examiner Friday.
“Luna is going to end up shooting herself and anybody who supports this bill in the foot by picking a fight with [House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)],” the staffer said.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), a longtime supporter of the ban, told the Washington Examiner Friday that forcing a vote on the issue is the only option if you want “a real bill.” He confirmed he would support her effort.
This longtime issue received support recently after President Donald Trump, Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) all endorsed a ban.
“I’m in favor of that because I don’t think we should have any appearance of impropriety here,” Johnson said earlier this year.
A discharge petition with 218 signatures will force the speaker to call a vote on the bill. After the petition reaches that threshold, the member can call a vote after seven legislative days.
REDISTRICTING SPLITS GOP AS CALIFORNIA FOLLOWS TEXAS ON PARTISAN GERRYMANDERING
This issue has had many pushes but has never been entirely successful. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, signed into law in 2012, prohibits members from acting on insider information and requires them to report their trades within 45 days. However, the law acts more like a slap on the wrist. The penalty is a mere $200 fine; members have not been punished for said violations.
Last year, a group of bipartisan senators, including Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), introduced legislation that passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to ban stock trading for sitting Congress members, marking the first time a bill with this language passed out of committee. Ossoff and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) reintroduced legislation in the Senate on Thursday in another push for a congressional stock trading ban.
