U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday for a failure of leadership after she refused to address legislation that would have imposed tougher stock trading restrictions on members of Congress.
(Video Credit: The Hill)
The legislation is personal to Spanberger who has been working on it since 2020. Her goal was to strengthen the provisions of the STOCK Act, a 2012 law that prohibits Congress members from using insider information to profit from stock trading, according to Fox News.
At one point this year, support for a full ban on trading by lawmakers gained momentum but the Virginia Democrat claims that Pelosi and other Democratic leaders scuttled it.
“[A]fter first signaling her opposition to these reforms, the Speaker purportedly reversed her position,” Spanberger asserted. “However, our bipartisan reform coalition was then subjected to repeated delay tactics, hand-waving gestures, and blatant instances of Lucy pulling the football.”
“This moment marks a failure of House leadership — and it’s yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill,” she charged, according to Fox News.
Rep. Spanberger, who initially introduced a version of the politician stock trading ban, has said that politicians were subject to “repeated delay tactics” and the Pelosi bill is “designed to fail.”
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 30, 2022
She wasn’t done ripping into Pelosi over it either. She said the speaker and other Democrats “chose to ignore these voices, push them aside, and look for new ways they could string the media and the public along.”
As for Pelosi, she defended what happened by stating that Spanberger’s original proposals were in the bill being considered.
“Her bill is contained in this bill,” Pelosi claimed. “Other members had ideas, too, to improve upon the bill.”
(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)
Pelosi doesn’t intend to call up the bill until the votes are there to pass it. That is vintage Pelosi, by the way.
PELOSI: STILL WORKING ON THE VOTES FOR LAWMAKER STOCK BAN BILL
But first Paul needs to make some hedging trades
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 30, 2022
House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) came up with an outline of a possible bill presented to House lawmakers. It would ban lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children from trading stocks and owning a range of securities. It would also apply to Supreme Court and federal judges, the president, and vice president, and members of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors who oversee monetary policy.
The outline fractured the Democrats on the issue. House Majority Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) claimed the proposal didn’t go far enough, while others were just simply opposed to it. After the rift among Democrats became obvious, it became clear there would be no time to call up any STOCK Act reform bill before the midterm elections.
Democrats scrap plan to vote on the Stock Trading Ban until after the elections
Who would have thought
— Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker ♟ (@PelosiTracker_) September 29, 2022
“It’s apparent that House leadership does not have its heart in this effort, because the package released earlier this week was designed to fail,” Spanberger accusingly stated. “It was written to create confusion surrounding reform efforts and complicate a straightforward reform priority — banning Members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks — all while creating the appearance that House Leadership wanted to take action.”
She isn’t giving up and has vowed that she will continue to push for STOCK Act reform with both Republicans and Democrats when lawmakers return after the midterms.
Spanberger came close to accusing Pelosi of opposing the bill for personal reasons. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, has made lucrative trades in recent years. The Pelosis are worth millions and a lot of that wealth has ostensibly been made in the stock market.
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