Washington Times: Blue Dog Democrat slams Pelosi on allowing members of Congress to trade stocks

WASHINGTON TIMES, MICA SOELLNER

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia Democrat, broke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on her stance that members of Congress should be allowed to trade stocks.

Ms. Spanberger, a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, asserted that members should be barred from stock trading due to their access to information.

“No,” Ms. Spanberger tweeted in response to Mrs. Pelosi’s comments. “It cannot be a perk of the job for members to trade on access to information.”

Mrs. Pelosi said that while members should be reporting their stock trades, lawmakers should be allowed to participate due to the nature of the economy.

“We are a free market economy,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “They should be able to participate in that.”

Mrs. Pelosi made the remarks after she was asked about a report released last week by Insider that found 49 members of Congress and 182 senior congressional staffers violated federal conflict-of-interest laws.

Mrs. Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. 

Her husband, Paul Pelosi, has holdings in a variety of companies, including Tesla, Disney, Slack, Facebook, and Netflix.