Dem Rep. Spanberger: As Members of Congress We Should Not Be Allowed to Own Individual Stocks

EXCERPT:

SPANBERGER: "Well, there’s an issue where perception is reality. And when we saw back in 2020, when there were reports coming out about different members of Congress who were buying or selling stocks in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the things that was most notable and disturbing to me was the general acceptance that, 'Look at them, look at Congress. Of course, the world is facing a global pandemic and they’re buying stocks in pharmaceutical companies.' That lack of trust that exists, that distance between people and legislators is something that we have to take proactive steps to remedy, to close that gap. And so, I think it’s important that we should not only endeavor to avoid impropriety, but the mere appearance of impropriety. The way that we do that is we say, as members of Congress, we should not be allowed to own individual stocks. Neither can our spouses. Neither can our children. We are taking active steps to say, when we are in Congress, in the halls of United States Capitol, we are working for the people who elected us. We are not thinking about what stock trades we may or may not make, we are not having, in the back of our mind, information from a briefing we had that morning.”