Luna says she'll force House vote on member stock trading ban

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna will attempt to force a House vote on a congressional stock trading ban in September, creating a new headache for Speaker Mike Johnson when members return to Washington from their summer recess.

The Florida lawmaker said Tuesday she plans to file a discharge petition at that time seeking a floor vote on legislation written by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) that would end members’ ability to trade individual securities.

“It’ll happen as soon as we get back,” she said.

Luna is moving forward with the highly sensitive effort after internal talks over proposals to curb lawmaker trading have gone sideways on Capitol Hill, with Republicans themselves at loggerheads over the way forward after months of talks. The issue, however, is gaining new momentum among a bipartisan faction of members who argue a crackdown is necessary to root out corruption.

The House Ethics Committee concluded last week that Rep. Mike Kelly’s wife bought shares in the steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs after Kelly’s office learned the Commerce Department was launching an investigation that could result in tariffs benefiting the company — before notice of the investigation was made public. Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, is a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee.

House Republicans also have privately raised concerns about Rep. Rob Bresnahan, another Pennsylvania Republican who has been a prolific stock trader after promising on the campaign trail to push a trading ban in Congress. Bresnahan has since introduced his own legislation and argues someone else manages the portfolio.

A discharge petition allows a majority of the House to sidestep the majority party leadership’s control of the floor agenda. Forcing a vote requires gathering signatures from 218 House members, but successful discharges are rare because it is considered a serious breach of party loyalty for majority members to sign them.

Luna already successfully pursued a discharge this year, over an effort to secure proxy voting for parents of newborns. But she agreed to back off her push after President Donald Trump intervened.

The uproar adds to the politically explosive challenges Johnson will face when lawmakers return from their recess. He’s already facing the threat of a separate discharge petition from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that would force a vote on a bipartisan bill to release Jeffrey Epstein-related documents.

A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.

A bipartisan group of House members — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — have been trying to chart a way forward on a stock trading ban for months without a resolution, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations. They have been unable to settle on a compromise between several competing bills, including Burchett’s legislation and a separate, more comprehensive bipartisan bill from Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.).

Members are already bound by a 2012 law that bans trading on congressional insider knowledge and requires lawmakers to report their trades. Democrats have wielded the issue as a political cudgel against the GOP after public disclosures revealed that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) purchased stocks during a tariff-induced dip in the market, only for those stocks to later rise in value.

But pursuing a total ban has been divisive, with many members in both parties quietly concerned about the prospect of divesting significant portfolios with potential tax implications. There are also serious doubts about whether a bill that the House passes could be enacted by the Senate, where there are even more widespread concerns.

Given those sensitivities, leaders of both parties have in recent years moved to keep the issue off the House floor, where members would be hard-pressed to cast a vote against it. Johnson and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed skepticism of the idea of banning member trades before later offering guarded support.

Pelosi, however, never allowed legislation to move that would prohibit the practice; so far, neither has Johnson. Luna’s effort promises to sidestep leaders and force the issue.