Public Service or Day Trading? Congress can't have both

Austin Weatherford

When crises hit, guess who gets rich?

We all remember March of 2020 — how could we forget? The world was shutting down, and Americans were worried about masks, jobs, and whether there’d be food and toilet paper on the shelves. Behind closed doors, members of Congress were getting classified briefings about COVID. And what happened next? Some of them started quietly dumping hotel and airline stocks and snapping up shares in telework and pharma companies — days before the markets crashed.

Fast-forward five years to a different crisis. During the Trump administration’s chaotic tariff rollout — a 55-day period of economic whiplash — members of Congress made over 2,200 stock trades worth up to $140 million, according to a report by our strategic partner, Campaign Legal Center. These don’t appear to be just random moves. Many trades involved companies directly affected by tariffs lawmakers were debating: Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs.

Think about that: While small businesses were bracing for price spikes and families were trying to stretch their grocery budgets, lawmakers were betting on the stock market — and betting big.

Not just “Insider Trading”… something worse

Here’s what might shock most Americans: most of this is currently legal. Why? Because members of Congress aren’t considered federal employees. Federal workers are banned from participating in matters that affect a company they own stock in. But members of Congress are free to trade, with only narrow restrictions.

https://www.brightamerica.org/p/public-service-or-day-trading-congress