A Virginia politician thinks it’s time for Congress to enact her delayed measure prohibiting fellow members and their relatives from trading stocks while in office.
This comes after new research revealed hundreds of politicians outperformed the market in 2022, notwithstanding Wall Street’s poorest year since 2008.
The Bill
Rep. Abigail Spanberger stated the Trust in Congress Act was long past due for a vote.
She stated an overwhelming plurality of American citizens want this to be accomplished. Politicians should demonstrate they are exclusively focused on furthering the concerns of the American people – not their own balance sheets.
Congressmembers Adam Schiff and Abigail Spanberger have introduced a bill making it a crime if a Member of Congress is caught insider trading. Do you support this bill?
— Erica Marsh (@ericareport) January 14, 2023
Spanberger, who reintroduced the bipartisan bill with Texas Rep. Chip Roy on Thursday, was referring to an eye-opening story by the stock trading news website, Unusual Whales.
It was revealed the S&P 500 fell 18.2 percent last year as many Americans’ 401Ks plunged, while Democratic members of Congress who traded witnessed just a 1.76 percent decline in their earnings.
In reality, Republican legislators gained 0.4% on their transactions.
Members of Congress AND their spouses AND their dependent children must be banned from buying, trading, or selling individual stocks while serving the American people.
RT if you agree.
— Rep. Abigail Spanberger (@RepSpanberger) January 13, 2023
Rep. Patrick Fallon topped the list of beneficiaries in 2022 with a return on investment of 51.6%. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz had a 50.8% increase and Rep. Susie Lee enjoyed a 21.4% increase, followed closely behind.
Twitter was Fallon’s best bet. According to the study, he bought $150,000 of shares in January 2022 and sold it when Elon Musk revealed his ambitions to purchase the social media behemoth, making $75,000.
Erstwhile Rep. Marie Newman, who lost re-election last year, was one of the only Congress members who performed worse than the S&P 500, losing 83.1%.
The most significant loss last year was California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who wavered on a trade ban in 2021 and 2022 as House Speaker. Her entrepreneurial capitalist spouse Paul Pelosi’s family portfolio fell 19.8%.
No current New York City politicians were highlighted in the dossier.
Still, Unusual Whales offered The Post additional data suggesting small stocks trading activity over the previous two years by new House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and erstwhile Rep. Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) supported prohibiting congressional trading through a spokesperson.
Trades
Usual Whales used financial disclosure records from 131 (24%) of Congress members who disclosed trading activity in 2022. Congress members outperformed US investors in a 2021 study.
Dozens of legislators from both parties have traded with the corporations they oversee at odd times. Members of Congress must declare their stock trades, but they typically do so weeks or months later.
Throughout 2022, they exchanged up to $788 million worth of various assets via over 12,700 acquisitions, sales, and swaps. This is $189 million less than in 2021, when the same amount of purchases was recorded by 147 politicians filing disclosure forms.
Apple ($6.3 million), Disney ($6.25 million), Google ($6.2 million), Musk’s electric vehicle startup Tesla ($6.08 million), and tech behemoth Nvidia ($5.8 million) were among the top equities acquired by members of Congress last year.
Visa ($11.2 million), Nvidia ($6.35 million), Exxon Mobile ($5.32 million), pharmaceutical powerhouse Eli Lilly ($5.21 million), and Microsoft ($3.4 million) were the top-selling equities.
This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.
