House Speaker Johnson Pumps Brakes on Congress Stock Trading Ban

Friday Dec 5 2025 00:00

Duration

2 min

  1. 1. House Speaker Expresses Reservations on Congress Stock Trading Ban

House Speaker Expresses Reservations on Congress Stock Trading Ban

House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to have put the brakes on proposals aimed at prohibiting members of Congress from trading stocks. Johnson, the third most powerful figure in American politics after the President and Vice President, told Punchbowl News on Wednesday that members of Congress should still be able to own stocks. He suggested that a ban could deter qualified individuals from running for office. "You don't want to put an extra barrier to good people who want to serve," Johnson explained. While Johnson expressed concern about "people gaming the system and abusing power," he also indicated that "there's probably a way to prevent that from happening and allow people to do legitimate trades." Notably, Johnson had previously voiced support for a congressional stock trading ban earlier this year. "I'm for it, because I think that we should not have even the appearance of impropriety," he said at the time. Johnson's comments come as Florida Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna and Tennessee Republican Representative Tim Burchett are pushing for a vote on a bill that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks. The legislation, drafted by a bipartisan coalition of members of Congress, would require current members of Congress to divest their individual stock holdings within 180 days of the law's enactment, while newly elected members would have 90 days to do so. The ban would also extend to the spouses and dependent children of members of Congress. However, members of Congress and their families would still be permitted to invest in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and other broadly held funds. Luna and Burchett are employing a mechanism called a "discharge petition," which, if signed by 218 or more members of the House of Representatives, would force a vote on the bill, even if the Speaker opposes it. It is not clear whether they will reach that number of votes, and Johnson predicts they will not succeed. "We should let the process play out naturally," Johnson told Punchbowl News. "There are a lot of good people working on this, and we'll eventually get to a place that everyone's comfortable with, but we have to allow the process the time to work." Democrats have largely supported the proposal to ban stock trading for members of Congress. At a press conference on Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stated that Democrats are "overwhelmingly in support of banning congressional stock trading," but given Republican opposition, it may not move forward until Democrats regain control of the House.

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Sophia Claire

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