The House will consider a stock trading ban once the government reopens — but the deadline keeps moving

A key lawmaker has announced that the House of Representatives will formally consider a stock trading ban once the government reopens, but it will be done in a way that creates uncertainty about when (or perhaps even if) lawmakers will face an up-or-down vote on the issue.

“Speaker Johnson has notified me that as soon as we return and the government is reopened, the bill to ban insider trading is going to be marked up in committee,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida recently posted.

Luna is part of a group of lawmakers pushing a measure to ban all lawmaker trading and called the move “a big win for America.”

But a committee hearing is a significantly less dramatic step than Luna was threatening months ago.

It was back in September — before the shutdown intervened — that Luna set a deadline of the end of that month before she said she’d seek to force an immediate and full House vote through what is called a discharge petition, which bypasses leadership.

A spokesperson for Luna didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about when the committee hearing might take place and whether a discharge petition could still be an option if the bill stalls at the committee level.

Even as lawmakers themselves are split on the issue, polls indicate overwhelming public support for banning insider trading. One survey this summer from the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy found 86% of Americans backed a ban.

And public opinion has only appeared to harden this year after a series of reports have highlighted an elevated number of stock transactions by Congress members around tariff-fueled market fluctuations earlier this year. In particular, when markets plunged in the wake of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement in April, some lawmakers and their families made hundreds of stock trades — positioning themselves to benefit when the market rebounded.

That public support has powered a bipartisan coalition in support of a ban.

Luna is signed on to a measure called the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would implement a ban on members of Congress, their spouses, their dependent children, and their trustees from owning, buying, or selling individual stocks, securities, commodities, or futures.

The bill is being led by a Republican — Rep. Chip Roy of Texas — and a Democrat — Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island — and was unveiled in September with a cross-section of supporters.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Tim Burchett of Tennessee — two lawmakers who agree on little — appeared at the press conference with Luna and others unveiling the bill and even shared a fist bump.

The concept of a ban has also been getting some tentative support across Washington.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he is in favor of a ban, and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s position is that he personally supports a ban but isn’t pushing the issue to the top of the congressional agenda.

“I respect the views of other people on the subject,” Johnson has said, alluding to some lawmakers who have raised concerns and calling it “a tough issue.”

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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