‘PELOSI Act’ Returns: GOP Senator Josh Hawley Renews Effort To Ban Congressional Stock Trading

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reintroduced the "Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act" on Monday, which seeks a ban of Congressional members from trading or holding individual stocks. 

The reintroduction followed a failed attempt by the senator in 2023 during the term of ex-President Joe Biden. 

Incidentally, the bill's acronym is the name of one of the most prolific congressional traders: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 

The bill proposes a ban on stock trading by lawmakers and their spouses during their time in office and prohibits investments in diversified mutual funds, ETFs, and U.S. Treasury bonds. If passed, lawmakers would have 180 days to comply.

Non-compliant members will have to forfeit any stock profits to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and face monetary penalties imposed by the House and Senate ethics committees.

Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have made profitable investments in high-profile tech stocks, prompting scrutiny over whether her political position may have granted access to non-public, confidential information.

The former House Speaker's success with trading has prompted retail investors to build portfolios tracking her investments. 

Lawmakers on the opposite end of the political spectrum, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), have also drawn attention to their stock trades.

Just after the tariff storm hit Wall Street, Greene picked up a slew of mega-cap tech stocks, including Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN), and chipmakers such as AMD (AMD), ASML (ASML), and Applied Materials (AMAT).

Hawley's second attempt came after President Donald Trump said in a Time Magazine interview that he would sign a ban on congressional stock trading. "Well, I watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information, and I would be okay with it. If they send that to me, I would do it," the president said.

In a statement posted on his website, Senator Hawley said, "Members of Congress should be fighting for the people they were elected to serve—not day trading at the expense of their constituents."

"Americans have seen politician after politician turn a profit using information not available to the general public. It's time we ban all members of Congress from trading and holding stocks and restore Americans' trust in our nation's legislative body."

For the year-to-date period, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ETF are down over 5.8% and 7.4%, respectively.

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