{"id":109319,"date":"2026-01-07T18:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/109319\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:00:33","slug":"pinellas-republican-wants-to-ban-congressional-stock-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/109319\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinellas Republican wants to ban congressional stock trading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AU.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in Clearwater, Florida on Jan 6, 2025. Credit: RepLuna \/ X<\/a><\/p>\n

CLEARWATER \u2014 Pinellas County Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna\u2019s push for a congressional stock trading ban received an endorsement Tuesday from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n

Saying members from both major parties have unfairly boosted their personal financial fortunes based on information they learn while serving in Congress, the governor added that every member of the state\u2019s 28-member congressional delegation should support the legislation when it comes to a vote in the House later this year.<\/p>\n

And he said he will advocate for a state law to require all candidates running for federal office in Florida to check a form about whether they intend to trade individual stocks while serving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really odd,\u201d he said while speaking at a press conference held at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Clearwater.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have people get elected to Congress having never shown any investment acumen ever in their life, and then all of a sudden they become Warren Buffet on steroids. They\u2019re putting some of the biggest hedge funds in America to shame with these stock trades that have these really suspicious timings. Because, look, if you buy a stock and it goes up 400% in like a month? That\u2019s like a once in a lifetime investment, and yet these guys seem to be doing this quite frequently. And they have access to certain information I believe that is helping to fuel that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public opinion\u00a0polls<\/a>\u00a0have shown for several years that banning stock-trading in individual companies by members of Congress is popular.<\/p>\n

Portfolios increase<\/p>\n

Republicans from across the country have made former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the symbol of how members of Congress have become exponentially wealthier during their time in Washington. Over the past three years, Pelosi reported a trade volume of more than $50 million, according to\u00a0Capital Trades<\/a>, a website that monitors the stock activity of members of Congress.<\/p>\n

However, according to the government watchdog group\u00a0Common Cause<\/a>, that only put the California Democrat eighth among the members of the 119th Congress in terms of trade volume (Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal was first).<\/p>\n

Both DeSantis and Luna referred to Pelosi Tuesday but acknowledged that members from both political parties are at fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn average, members that do engage in stock trading on both sides are getting 600% returns now outperforming the S&P,\u201d Luna said. \u201cSo, how could you ever expect members of Congress to truly work for the American people if this is indeed what they\u2019re doing? And it\u2019s wrong and it needs to stop and so I\u2019m very happy that Gov. DeSantis has been able to lead on this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Nancy Pelosi\u2019s portfolio, she has absolutely shattered a lot of these investment records,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just that. There\u2019s a whole bunch and it\u2019s on both sides of the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell individual stocks, as long as they don\u2019t violate insider trading rules, under the\u00a0Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act).<\/a><\/p>\n

The public perception that members of Congress are disproportionately benefitting from their positions has been growing in recent years. Members of Congress who later ascend to leadership positions outperformed rank-and-file members by 47 percentage points, according to a November 2025 paper produced by the\u00a0National Bureau of Economic Research.<\/a><\/p>\n

State legislation to address the issue<\/p>\n

DeSantis said he believes so strongly about the issue that he is supporting state legislation to require candidates in Florida who qualify for federal races to fill out a form declaring whether they intend to trade individual stocks while serving. If those candidates run for re-election, he added, they will need to fill out a form asking them whetehr they traded any stocks while serving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they say \u2018yes,\u2019 then that means they broke their word to do and, honestly, lied on those forms. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeSantis served in Congress for six years (2012-2018) and said that he stopped buying and selling stocks when he went to Washington because he didn\u2019t want to be questioned about his integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy reason was, why would I want to be in a situation where, like, I take some action and then someday someone will say, \u2018Well, that\u2019s because you own Microsoft or you own this or that,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeSantis is\u00a0national co-chair<\/a>\u00a0of a bipartisan campaign with the group U.S. Term Limits to enact congressional term limits via a constitutional amendment. And he travelled to Idaho earlier this year to promote a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to\u00a0balance its budget.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rep. Luna has been battling with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to force a vote on the issue. Last month, she introduced\u00a0a discharge petition<\/a>\u00a0to move the proposal directly to the House floor, similar to the tactic\u00a0used<\/a>\u00a0by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to force a vote on the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Pinellas Republican said Tuesday that she has received word that the bill will get a vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to report, governor, that we actually have met with the Speaker of the House and that we are going to be putting something on the floor coming up this quarter that will permanently stop insider trading ,which it is happening in Washington D.C., but it\u2019s permanently going to stop it in D.C., so happy to report back on that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This article appears in Jan. 01 \u2013 07, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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