CBS19

According to a survey conducted by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC) at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, overwhelming bipartisan majorities of Americans favor prohibiting stock trading in individual companies by members of Congress.

Of the 2,625 Americans surveyed, 87 percent of Republicans, 88 percent of Democrats, and 81 percent of Independents indicated their support for banning lawmakers and the family that lives with them from buying, selling and trading individual stocks.

“The numbers have been and continue to be clear — the vast majority of Americans of all political persuasions support a ban on individual stock trading by members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children,” U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) said. “Throughout the more than three years that we have been leading the effort to make that ban a reality, I’ve heard from Virginians across the Seventh District who are sick and tired of reading headline after headline detailing suspiciously timed trades by lawmakers. The American people could not make themselves more clear — and Democrats and Republicans alike recognize that this reform is long overdue.”

Spanberger has long worked to reduce opportunities for improper trades by lawmakers. Earlier this year, Spanberger and U.S. Representative Chip Roy (R-Texas) reintroduced their bipartisan Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act to effectively ban members of Congress — as well as their spouses and dependent children — from trading individual stocks. The legislation now has more than 60 Democratic and Republican cosponsors.

Spanberger and Roy originally introduced the legislation in June 2020, and reintroduced it in January 2021.

The survey also found that 87 percent of respondents favor a similar ban for justices serving on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Earlier this year, Spanberger helped introduce the Justice is BLIND Act to block federal judges — including Supreme Court justices — from holding certain financial interests and individual stocks that may present conflicts of interest with cases they are deciding, unless those assets are in a blind trust.