Rep. Abigail Spanberger speaks on Capitol Hill in April about the Ban Conflicted Trading Act. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
GovExec Daily: Can Members of Congress Trade Stocks Using Insider Information?
Rep. Abigail Spanberger joins the podcast to discuss why legislators have more lax rules around ethics than federal employees.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple Senators sold millions of dollars worth of stock between a Jan. 24 2020 private briefing and the market crash a few weeks later, certainly bringing up questions as to whether they acted on sensitive insider information. Unfortunately, there is little to prevent members of Congress from doing this and attempts to shore the rules up have been thwarted. For example, after rejecting a comprehensive bill, the House leadership brought forward a stock-trading bill that is full of holes and likely dead on arrival… if it gets a vote.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger is a Democrat representing Virginia's 7th district in the United States House of Representatives. She’s also been a leading voice for stricter rules in the legislature surrounding stock-trading and ethics. She joined the podcast to discuss ethics, congress and her role in enacting stricter rules against legislators trading individual stocks.
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