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Americans overwhelmingly support banning stock trading in Congress
- Anna Paulina Luna
- Sep 18, 2025
- 3 min read
According to the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, 86% of Americans want to ban stock trading in Congress. As elected representatives, our duty is to serve the people, not enrich ourselves. So if nearly 9 out of 10 Americans demand this reform, why hasn’t it become law?
We know the answer: Because the suits in Washington will never vote to limit their own power. They’d rather pad their pockets than honor the will of the people.
But 2025 is different. As a Washington outsider, I was not elected to Congress to protect the status quo. I was elected to shake it up. That’s why I’ve taken up the fight to ban stock trading for members of Congress. In Washington, I see the corruption firsthand, and I know if I don’t fight for this now while Republicans have a majority (slim at that), it will never get done.
For too long, members of Congress have treated public office as a ticket to personal fortune. While everyday Americans struggle to pay bills, Washington insiders have been using their positions to play the stock market, with insider information that the public will never have access to. That is corruption, and it is one of the biggest reasons why trust in our government is at an all-time low. By ending stock trading in Congress, we can begin to rebuild the trust that has been broken.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband saw their net worth rise to between $250 million and possibly over $400 million while she made a six-figure salary in Congress, according to reporting from the New York Post and market research firm Quiver Quantitative. She is not the only one. Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have profited immensely from a system that puts their personal financial interests ahead of the American people. Congress should never be a get-rich-quick scheme for politicians who failed to cut it on Wall Street.
That is why I am a fierce advocate for the Restore Trust in Congress Act. The bill bans members of Congress, their spouses and their dependents from trading or owning individual stocks and other assets that conflict with their duty to serve the American people. It has overwhelming bipartisan support with 28 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, including Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal, Seth Magaziner, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Chip Roy, Brian Fitzpatrick and many others.
Yet, predictably, the Washington establishment is doing everything it can to block this bill. Leadership in both parties has tried to bury the legislation, hoping the American people will forget. But we will not forget, and we will not stop fighting. Congress has a moral obligation to act. And if this bill is not brought to the floor, I am prepared to force a vote by signing a discharge petition, which means every member of Congress will have to go on record, either standing with the people or for corruption.
This fight is bigger than one party, one chamber or one election. I stand alongside my colleagues from both sides of the aisle on this issue. We may not agree on every issue, but we agree on this: Corruption has no place in Congress.
Strong values like fairness, honesty and accountability are not Republican or Democratic; they are American. And the people deserve representatives who live by those values.
To my colleagues who are still on the fence: The American people are watching. They will remember who stood up to corruption and who protected the swamp. There is no hiding from this vote. Either you believe Congress should serve the people, or you believe Congress should serve itself.
The choice is clear. It is time to pass the Restore Trust in Congress Act. It is time to ban congressional stock trading and deliver this win to the American people, once and for all.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna serves in Florida’s 13th congressional district. Luna, a Republican, is a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets and is a U.S. Air Force veteran.
This story appeared on the Tampa Bay Times, to read the full article there, please click here.
It's truly remarkable to see such overwhelming bipartisan support — 86% of Americans, including majorities across both parties, agree that members of Congress shouldn't be trading stocks while in office. This isn't a partisan issue; it's a basic question of ethics and public trust. The fact that a discharge petition is needed to force a vote on a bill with this level of popular backing really shows how disconnected the political establishment can be from the will of the people. Banning stock trading for lawmakers, their spouses, and dependents is a common-sense reform that would help ensure elected officials are focused on serving the public, not their own portfolios. If you're into more rabbit holes about content creation, community building,…
The numbers in this post are hard to ignore. When 86% of Americans — including overwhelming majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents — agree on banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, that's not just a poll result. That's a statement about how broken public trust has become. The House recently passed the Stop Insider Trading Act (H.R. 7008) by a 232-198 vote, which is a significant step forward. But the fact that it took this long, and that the Senate path remains uncertain, tells you everything about who benefits from the status quo. And reports that the president could be exempted from the ban? That’s the kind of loophole that makes people cynical in the first place. Real…
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There's a reason trust in government is at an all‑time low — when members of Congress can trade stocks using information the public will never have access to, the system stops working for everyday people. Nancy Pelosi and her husband saw their net worth rise to somewhere between $250 million and $400 million while she earned a six‑figure salary. This isn't a partisan issue; it's an American one. The Restore Trust in Congress Act would ban members, their spouses, and dependents from owning or trading individual stocks, and it already has 28 cosponsors from both parties. But leadership in both chambers keeps trying to bury it. For anyone who cares about accountability, transparency, and whether democracy actually serves the people,…
The 86% figure from the University of Maryland is the part that should embarrass Washington, because there is almost no issue with that kind of agreement. Odd reality check: my kid uses a Fortnite Sprite Tracker that logs every item more transparently than Congress logs its trades. If the Restore Trust in Congress Act forces that same visibility onto stock disclosures, it deserves far more attention.