January 1, House Democrat Pushes Back on Pelosi After Stock Comments

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is pushing back against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) after telling reporters that Congress members should be able to trade single stocks.

A recent Insider report that found 49 members of Congress and 182 senior staffers have violated the STOCK Act, which aims to prevent insider trading. At her weekly press conference, Pelosi was asked about the report and if lawmakers should be able to trade stocks at all. Pelosi firmly said they should be free to do so.

“This is a free market, and people — we are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. Her husband Paul reportedly made $5 million after acquiring 4,000 shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

The speaker’s views do not align with the rest of her party, with several Democrats expressly advocating for the practice to be banned.

“The access and influence we have should be exercised for the public interest, not our profit. It shouldn’t be legal for us to trade individual stock with the info we have,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, ahead of Pelosi’s remarks.

Spanberger directly responded to Pelosi’s comments on Twitter.

“No. It cannot be a perk of the job for Members to trade on access to information,” Spanberger wrote.