() Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has announced plans to force a House vote on a stock trading ban for members for Congress in September.
Luna said she’d be filing a discharge petition in a social media post Tuesday, writing, “If Congress doesn’t do this now with a slim majority, it’s never going to happen. If anyone says I shouldn’t be doing a discharge petition in order to accomplish this, it’s because either they want to maintain control or the status quo. Either way, this does not benefit the American people.”
According to Center Forward, a bipartisan nonprofit, a discharge petition is a legislative maneuver in the U.S. House of Representatives that allows members to force a bill out of committee, bypass House leadership and onto the House floor for a vote. The petition requires a House majority of 218 signatures and has rarely been successful. It’s worth noting that Luna has already successfully petitioned a discharge this year, when she was able to secure enough signatures to force a vote on proxy voting for new parents in March.
This time, the legislation Luna is looking to force a vote on is a bill introduced by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., which seeks to prohibit stock trading and ownership by members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children. Luna’s announcement comes amid growing tension around the subject on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle.
Earlier in July, the House Ethics Committee released a report detailing an investigation into allegations that Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Penn., his wife purchased stocks using confidential information he had acquired through his work as a lawmaker. According to the report, the committee “did not find substantial evidence” that Kelly violated any laws, but it did criticize him and his wife for their “lack of cooperation.”
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Axios reports that a stock trading ban proposed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is receiving pushback from White House officials over language changes that subject the president and vice president to the ban.
