Washington Examiner: House Democrat pushes back on Pelosi after stock comments

WASHINGTON EXAMINER, KATE SCANLON

Rep. Abigail Spanberger pushed back after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol this week that members of Congress should be able to trade stocks.

Asked about an Insider report that found 49 members of Congress and 182 senior congressional staffers have violated the STOCK Act, which aims to prevent insider trading, and whether members should be able to trade stocks at all, Pelosi said they should be free to do so.

“We have a responsibility to report in the stock — on the stock,” she said. “If the people aren’t reporting, they should be.”

Pelosi, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, said members should not be banned from trading “because this is a free market … we are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that.”

But Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, took to Twitter to express disagreement with Pelosi.

“No,” Spanberger wrote. “It cannot be a perk of the job for Members to trade on access to information.”

Spanberger touted legislation she introduced called the TRUST in Congress Act, which she said would require “elected officials and their families to place assets in a blind trust to prevent them from profiting off their positions.”

Spanberger was first elected to represent Virginia’s 7th Congressional District in 2018, and she was narrowly reelected to the swing district seat last year. Virginia’s redistricting process is ongoing, but a new proposed map of the state’s congressional districts would leave Spanberger competing in a district more liberal than the one she currently represents.