BLOOMBERG, BILLY HOUSE

Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders who she accused of dragging their feet on legislation to ban stock trading by lawmakers.

Spanberger, who introduced a bill with Republican Representative Chip Roy to require that lawmakers place investment assets into a blind trust while in office, questioned Pelosi’s commitment to a stock-trading ban and called the delay in acting on any reform bill before the House leaves for a break “a failure of House leadership.”

“After first signaling her opposition to these reforms, the Speaker purportedly reversed her position. However, our bipartisan reform coalition was then subjected to repeated delay tactics, hand-waving gestures, and blatant instances of Lucy pulling the football,” Spanberger, who faces a competitive re-election contest for her Virginia district in November, said in a statement on Friday. “It’s yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill.”

Pelosi, who has faced pressure from some Democrats to allow a new generation to take over, said she hadn’t seen Spanberger’s statement and brushed aside the call for new leadership, saying she is focused on “winning the next election.”

She said parts of Spanberger’s proposal has been incorporated in legislation unveiled by senior Democrats earlier this week.

“Other members have ideas, too,” Pelosi said. “You have to have the votes to bring it up.”