A prominent Republican has raised concerns that congressional leaders might send lawmakers home early for the holidays to avoid a pivotal vote on prohibiting stock trading among members of Congress.

Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna from Florida expressed her suspicions today that GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries could be working together to sidestep a vote on her discharge petition.

If Luna’s petition secures 218 signatures, it would trigger a vote on the Restore Trust in Congress Act. This legislation aims to compel members of Congress to either divest their stock holdings or place them in blind trusts.

“My legislation to ban insider trading is being taken so seriously that I’m hearing that both Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Speaker, along with potentially other House leaders, are considering sending members home,” Luna stated on CNN Wednesday. “They don’t want members to sign onto legislation that the American public overwhelmingly supports to ban insider trading.”

Despite Luna’s concerns, her petition currently has only 37 signatures, raising questions about why House leadership might be wary of a move that appears to lack immediate support.

“Leadership may shut the House down next week and try to blame my discharge petition to ban stock trading, and discharge petitions in general, as a scapegoat,” Luna shared in a social media post.

For years, proposals to ban stock trading among members – who are privy to market-moving information before the public – have been left to languish without receiving votes. 

Should Luna’s petition get to 218, there would be little the leaders of both parties could do to stop it. 

‘Leadership may shut the House down next week and try to blame my discharge petition to ban stock trading, and discharge petitions in general, as a scapegoat,’ the Florida Republican wrote in a social media post

Luna alleged that the Republican and Democratic House leaders may conspire to send lawmakers home early to avoid voting on stock trading reform

Still, with most lawmakers wanting to keep their stock trading ability untouched and lightly regulated, it is hard to see over 150 new signatures on Luna’s petition by next week.

Plus, Speaker Johnson has said he would support a stock trade-banning bill that gets consensus and that he would not get in the way of any petition that gets the required support, making Luna’s claim that he would shut down the House early even more surprising. 

‘This is unserious,’ a spokesperson for liberal leader Jeffries told the Daily Mail.

‘As Congresswoman Luna knows well, the Deputy Speaker and Republicans solely set the House floor schedule as evidenced by the unpopular and irresponsible decision to have a weeks-long taxpayer funded Republican vacation during the government shutdown.’

Unfortunately for Luna, discharge petitions hardly ever work. 

Though there is a silver lining, as just last month a discharge petition successfully prompted a vote on releasing further files on the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and it worked. 

Banning trading among members of Congress has been a broadly popular policy for decades. Lawmakers just have not wanted to restrict their own trading. 

But as well-known politicians started raking in the millions over the course of their public service, some of their colleagues have increasingly wanted to ban the practice. 

Luna’s petition, however, only has 37 signatures so far, making it curious why leadership would be so afraid of a gambit that still seems far off

Democratic Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came into office in 1987 with a few hundred thousand dollars, according to financial disclosures analyzed by the New York Post. 

Now the outlet claims she is worth north of $130 million, though she claims her husband, Paul Pelosi, does all the trading – and it’s all above board. 

One past proposal to ban stock trading from Sen. Josh Hawley was even referred to as the PELOSI Act. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the speaker’s office for comment.