President Biden has declared his support for banning sitting members of Congress from trading stock — an eleventh-hour pivot after four years of silence over the controversy.
“Nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they’re in the Congress,” Biden told the “More Perfect Union” podcast.
“I don’t know how you look your constituents in the eye and know because of the job they gave you, gave you an inside track to make more money,” Biden said, adding: “I think we should be changing the law.”
The interview was conducted by Faiz Shakir, a political adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and published by A More Perfect Union, a pro-labor advocacy and journalism organization.
It’s unclear what impact Biden’s statement could have, coming only a month before his term ends.
Biden had previously declined to take a position on congressional stock trading.
His fellow Democrat, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, initially opposed proposals that lawmakers and their spouses be banned from trading stocks.
Pelosi, who is married to venture capitalist Paul Pelosi, insisted that her husband makes stock trades independently and that she has no involvement. She said in December 2021 that there is a “free market” that members of Congress “should be able to participate in.”
Speculation about Pelosi’s future in Congress has ramped up in recent days after the 84-year-old congresswoman from San Francisco underwent hip replacement surgery in Europe earlier this week.
Pelosi suffered a fall while on a trip to Luxembourg over the weekend, breaking her hip.
Financial disclosure forms showed that Paul Pelosi, who is said to be worth in excess of $275 million, sold 2,000 shares of Visa stock worth between $500,000 and $1 million on July 1. In September, the Justice Department announced it was suing Visa for alleged antitrust violations.
Since 2021, Pelosi has softened her stance amid backlash, coming out in support of strengthening an existing law, the Stock Act, which requires lawmakers to disclose their stock sales and purchases.
She has also called for extending stock trading disclosure requirements to members of the judiciary, while stiffening penalties for members of Congress who flout the rules.
Relations between Biden and Pelosi, who were once close, are said to have been ruptured after the former speaker played a key role in nudging the president from the race earlier this year due to concerns over his age and mental acuity.
Pelosi told news outlets that she intended for the Democrats to stage a quick primary process following Biden’s decision to step aside, but his swift endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris frustrated those plans.
Biden’s support for a ban marks somewhat of a pivot for the president, who has been largely noncommittal on the issue.
When Jen Psaki served as White House press secretary two years ago, she said Biden would “let members of leadership in Congress and members of Congress determine what the rules should be.”
A bipartisan proposal to ban trading by members of Congress and their families has dozens of sponsors, but it has not received a vote.
Although lawmakers are required to disclose stock transactions exceeding $1,000, they’re routinely late in filing notices and sometimes don’t file them at all.
Shakir said he admired Biden for having not “gone in early on Google, and Boeing, and Microsoft, and Nvidia, and, you know, Amazon” while he was a US senator from Delaware, a position he held for 36 years.
Biden said he lived on his Senate salary instead of playing the stock market.
Trading in Congress has long been criticized by government watchdogs, who say the access to nonpublic information creates a temptation for lawmakers to prioritize their own finances over the public good.
Public anger has mounted since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when some lawmakers were caught buying and selling millions of dollars worth of stock after being warned about the coming disruption from the virus.
With Post wires
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