A bipartisan rush earlier this year to limit stock trading by members of Congress has given way to the slow grind of finding a consensus on a complex issue that critics say erodes public trust in government.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, once a stalwart opponent of the effort, and GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy are both open to reining in lawmakers’ ability to trade individual stocks, marking a rare moment of bipartisan accord in the fiercely divided House. But lawmakers must act quickly to find consensus among competing proposals before legislating grinds to a halt in August and their attention turns to the mid-term elections.
Dozens of lawmakers have introduced bills overhauling or updating the 2012 law that currently governs legislator transactions and public disclosure. Controversies about transactions by some lawmakers and an ethics scandal involving trades that engulfed the Federal Reserve last year spurred the flurry of proposals from conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats alike.
