Survey finds Virginians oppose stock trading by members of Congress

Abigail Spanberger has announced the initial results of her survey asking Virginians if they believe members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children should be allowed to personally buy, trade, or sell individual stocks while serving in Congress.

In one week since launching the survey, Spanberger’s office has received more than 3,200 responses from Virginians who made their voices heard on this issue. Of those responses, more than 93 percent oppose allowing lawmakers to make decisions as to which individual stocks they are buying, trading, or selling while serving in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate.

Last year, Spanberger reintroduced bipartisan legislation called the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act to increase transparency and reduce opportunities for insider trading by requiring that members of Congress — as well as their spouses and dependent children — put certain investment assets into a qualified blind trust during their entire tenure in Congress.

A companion bill led by U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) was introduced last week.

“I firmly believe that members of Congress and their spouses should be prohibited from buying, trading, or selling stocks while serving in elected office,” said Spanberger. “I want Congress to take concrete, proactive steps to avoid even the potential perception of self-dealing — and it is clear that thousands of Virginians share this sentiment. Over the last week, my constituents have agreed that lawmakers should be prohibited from unfairly informing their own investment decisions and expressed their support for our legislation to remove these opportunities for impropriety. I will continue moving our TRUST in Congress Act forward in the U.S. House and working to show the American people that we are deserving of that trust.”