CLEARWATER, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday proposed a way to have some accountability on congressional stock trading.
The governor was joined by Florida’s 13th Congressional District Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in Clearwater. Luna filed a discharge petition last month to bring “bipartisan legislation banning stock trading by Members of Congress directly to the House floor.”
“It’s basically a different form of insider trading. Like, there’s certain insider trading on Wall Street. And that does apply to Congress, but they’re privy to different types of that’s not really contemplated under existing laws,” DeSantis said.
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He called it a “no brainer” to support the bill “to end this charade with this insider congressional stock trading.” At the state level, DeSantis proposed a checkbox for those elected to Congress to answer.
“We are allowed to do this is when they qualify for federal office, there’s going to be a checkbox: Do you intend to trade individual stocks while you’re in Congress? Yes or no. And so you as a voter will know what this what they said. And if they say no or when they run for reelection, they have to answer a second question,” he said. “Did you in fact trade any stocks individually while you were in Congress? And if they say yes, then that means they broke their word to you and honestly lied on those forms."
The governor also highlighted his push for the states to certify a constitutional amendment for term limits of members of Congress.
“I think people want term limits, but they say, well, Congress will never do it. Well, you don’t really need Congress to do it if the states do it,” he said.
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