In some good news out of DC, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) announced that she is making a procedural move to force a vote on banning Congressional stock trading in individual stocks and other securities, a move that many online saw as a shot fired across the bow of alleged insider traders in Congress like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
As background, populists in Congress have long been clamoring to block insider trading in Congress by passing an act that would block members of Congress from trading in securities other than Treasury bills, notes, and bonds and broad market index ETFs. The current iteration of that bill, sparked by revelations about the Pelosi family’s wealth and trading successes, is called the PELOSI Act, and would essentially accomplish that objective.
However, despite being broadly popular with the American people and of the sort of thing that many Americans think is needed to deal with the corruption problem, the bill has long languished and hasn’t been voted on. Rep. Luna, speaking about the bill and its importance, announced that she would force Congress to act on the matter by forcing a vote by the end of September.
Making her announcement, Rep. Luna explained first that the American people are largely in support of the bill and so the bill needs to move forward by use of a so-called “discharge petition,” which can get around obstructionism from the majority party in power. Beginning, she said, “95% of Americans support this.”
Continuing, she explained that the GOP leadership has already been asked politely to hold a vote on the stock trading matter, but has refused to do so, and so a vote will be forced by the end of September. She said, “I sometimes feel like an adjudicator in this job, so I guess I’ll be the one to say that we’ve asked nicely for leadership to put this on the floor. If they don’t. I’m saying timeline is end of month.”
Continuing, she noted that the discharge petition necessary for forcing a vote is “ready to go” and the Trump White House is broadly in support of it. She said, “There’s a discharge petition prepared and ready to go. I think it’s very clear where the White House stands on this. I don’t speak for the White House, but the President has stated that he supports banning this because it is corrupt.”
Adding to that, she noted that the current state of things does look corrupt, and members of Congress appear to be more focused on their personal wealth than benefitting their constituents. She said, “Frankly, the fact that members are getting what plus 600% returns on their investments is wrong. But more importantly, how could you ever be expected to represent your constituents when you’re clearly worried about your pocketbook, and so that’s why we’re here today again.”
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Concluding, she thanked fellow GOP Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) for his help in putting together the discharge petition and that she hopes a vote will be brought, saying, “Thank you to Representative Burchett, because he helped work on that discharge. But we are very hopeful that this will be brought to the floor, in regular order, and we look forward collectively to deliver this one to the American people.”
Watch her here:
Conservatives online loved the news. For example, the “Raging Americans” Facebook account said, “MASSIVE WIN! Congresswoman Anna Luna is using a procedural loophole to force a vote to ban stock trading for Congressmen and Senators THIS MONTH! Nancy Pelosi is FREAKING OUT!” Similarly, a conservative account on X celebrated the momentous news by saying, “Rep. Luna DEMANDs a vote on banning stock trading by Members of Congress by the END OF THE MONTH!”