The STOCK Act and Congress’ war on sunlight

Congressional leadership sure has a funny way of deciding which transparency fights matter.

As POLITICO reported, the congressional leadership class is now scrambling behind closed doors to slow-walk or water down a bipartisan overhaul of the STOCK Act.

This bill, endorsed by President Trump, would stop decision-makers from being able to trade on insider information and thereby make legislative and regulatory decisions based on what makes them the most profit.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee called the struggle with leadership over this bill a “fist fight,” which is odd considering how Johnson and his minions like to talk a big game about transparency. I guess they think sunlight is only dangerous when it shines on them.

For decades, congressional leaders have treated financial transparency as something for the little people — the rank-and-file members, the regulated industries, the private companies they love to haul into hearings — but not something that should restrain leadership itself. They control the ethics process, the committees, the flow of classified briefings, and the rules governing disclosure. And when reform gets close, leadership’s instinct is always to kill it quietly.

Last year, Paul Pelosi sold more than 2,000 shares of Visa stock, timing the sale just before the Biden Justice Department filed its antitrust lawsuit against the company. The optics were terrible: one of the most powerful political families in America unloading shares right before a major enforcement action.

That Visa lawsuit quickly unraveled, criticized across the antitrust world as a politically driven misfire built on a flimsy theory of harm. Even former DOJ officials and academic economists have acknowledged that the case doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. But leadership’s reaction to this entire episode was the real tell.

They didn’t say, “Maybe our financial-disclosure system needs to be stronger.” They didn’t say, “Maybe leadership families shouldn’t be trading stocks that depend on federal enforcement decisions.” They certainly didn’t say, “Maybe the public deserves to know more.”

And this is hardly an isolated case. Over and over, powerful lawmakers and committee chairs have made strikingly well-timed stock trades that would land any corporate executive in serious discussions with the SEC.

The bottom line is that if there’s nothing to hide, then basic transparency measures like the STOCK Act should simply make all elected officials more accountable to the people they are elected to serve.

The American people may not know every detail of legislative procedure, but they know what a rigged game looks like.

Leadership doesn’t oppose stricter rules because the rules are complicated. They oppose them because the rules would apply to leadership. Meanwhile, trust in government has cratered to historic lows. Americans overwhelmingly believe public service should not be a pathway to private enrichment.

They’re right. No serious country can tolerate an elite political class that enforces one set of ethics rules on the private sector while exempting its own inner circle from even basic financial transparency.

The STOCK Act won’t fix everything. But it is the bare minimum required to show the public that congressional leaders are not above the laws and ethical expectations they impose on everyone else. If they were confident their trades were legitimate, they would welcome the effort to bring more sunlight to their books. Their resistance tells the country everything it needs to know.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said she intends to unleash a discharge petition to circumvent Speaker Mike Johnson and force a vote on the bill if congressional leadership continues to stonewall the legislation.

Good. The American people deserve a government where leaders serve the country, not their portfolios.

And the days of backroom deals, perfectly timed trades, and leadership-protected loopholes must finally come to an end.

Bill Spadea (@BillSpadea) is the Morning Drive Host on NJ 101.5

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