A bipartisan group of senators has reached an agreement on legislation that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., joined Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Jon Ossoff of Georgia on Wednesday to announce a compromise bill that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks. It will be introduced later this month in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Congress should not be here to make a buck, Congress should be here to serve the people," Hawley said in announcing the deal. "There is no reason why members of Congress ought to be profiting off of the information that only they get and the rest of the American people don't get.
Three years ago, I introduced landmark legislation to ban stock trading by Members of Congress. Today, after helping lead years of intensive bipartisan negotiations, I can report progress toward this necessary reform," Ossoff said. "Georgians overwhelmingly agree: Members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we make Federal policy and have extraordinary access to confidential information.