While Nancy Pelosi is no more in charge of the House, her name is up there in a new piece of legislation – and it’s not there as a compliment. Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced the bill citing Pelosi to prevent the kind of legalized corruption mastered by Pelosi and practiced by many others from both sides of the political divide in the House.
Last week, Senator Hawley introduced the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act which seeks to ban members of Congress and also their family members from holding or trading stocks.
Hawley stated that politicians have long used their power to write rules that shape the economic market in which they trade stocks, thus taking advantage of the system at the expense of the American people.
Reporting on the legislation, Breitbart wrote:
The legislation gives members and their spouses six months after taking office to divest stocks they hold or put them in a blind trust.
Earlier this month, a Twitter account called “unusual_whales” posted the list of Congress members, both Republicans and Democrats, who beat the market in 2021. The tweet reads: “They traded more than ever before. And they made numerous unusually timed trades, resulting in huge gains.”
Hawley appeared on Sean Hannity’s show to relate Nancy Pelosi to his proposed legislation. In his words: “Nancy Pelosi is the perfect example of what should not be happening in D.C.”
In the House, Democrat congresswoman Abigail Spanberger of VA and Republican congressman Chip Roy of Texas reintroduced the bipartisan Trust in Congress Act earlier this month.
The bill requires members of Congress and their spouses and dependent children to place certain assets into blind trusts, and for other purposes. While the bipartisan nature of the bill makes it a laudable effort to check the abuse of office by elected leaders of the American public, the question of honesty against pretension remains open.
Raw Story reported on Friday (January 27) that Democrat Congressman Gerry Connolly of Virginia violated existing stock trade law despite agreeing with the call for banning congress members from trading stocks.
Connolly is not alone in it; dozens of other congress members have done the same in recent years.