Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that he will join the push to ban single-stock trading in Congress, citing the “eye-popping returns” of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., as examples.
Bessent made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
“I am going to start pushing for this single-stock trading ban, because it is the credibility of the House and the Senate that you look at some of these eye-popping returns — whether it’s Rep. [Nancy] Pelosi, Sen. [Ron] Wyden — every hedge fund would be jealous of them. And the American people deserve better than this.”
Pelosi raked in between $7.8 million and $42 million in 2024, bringing her net worth with her husband, venture capitalist Paul Pelosi, to an estimated $413 million, it was reported in June.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., in April reintroduced a bill, the PELOSI Act (Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments), that would ban members of Congress from trading or holding individual stocks.
Paul Pelosi reportedly sold more than $500,000 worth of Visa stock less than three months before the Department of Justice hit the credit card giant with an antitrust lawsuit, in one case.
“People shouldn’t come to Washington to get rich; they should come to serve the American people,” Bessent said. “And it brings down trust in the system. Because I can tell you that if any private citizen traded this way, the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] would be knocking on their door.”
A spokesperson for the congresswoman said in a statement that she “does not own any stocks and has no knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”
A former deputy chief counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics said Bessent has added energy and “momentum” to the calls for bans.
“It reflects the bipartisan understanding that congressional stock trading is a problem, and the president has talked about the need for something to address it,” Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told Bloomberg.
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