President Joe Biden said in an interview published in part Tuesday that he is in favor of a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, taking a position on an issue that has been the subject of discussion and proposed legislation in recent years.
Speaking with Faiz Shakir, an adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in an interview on the progressive nonprofit news site More Perfect Union, Biden said he did not know how lawmakers could trade stocks in good conscience while representing their states or districts.
“I don’t know how you look your constituents in the eye and know because the job they gave you, it gave you the inside track to make more money,” Biden said.
Shakir noted during the interview that Biden did not own stock during his decades as a senator.
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Biden’s remarks Tuesday were the first time he has taken a side on the issue, but it is unclear what impact they could have, given his lame-duck status with just over a month left in office.
Congressional stock trading has become a political flashpoint on Capitol Hill and beyond, as ethics watchdogs and some lawmakers allege that members of Congress who trade stocks are profiting from insider knowledge.
Legislation to ban congressional stock trading has been introduced repeatedly in recent years but has never been passed.
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A bipartisan group of senators this year introduced a proposal dubbed the ETHICS Act, which would bar lawmakers from buying stocks and other covered investments and prevent them from selling stocks 90 days after the bill’s enactment. The bill would also bar such activities by their spouses and dependent children.
The proposal would also require the president and the vice president to divest from covered investments, and it would exact monetary penalties for violating the proposal, which one of the sponsors, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., called “a commonsense piece of legislation that helps maintain trust in this institution.”
The full Senate has not yet taken the legislation up for a vote.
Former President Barack Obama signed a bill aimed at preventing insider trading by members of Congress and aides and increasing reporting requirements in 2012.
In the interview with Shakir, Biden called for more action.
“I think we should be changing the law that we have to — we abide by that at the federal level — that nobody, nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they’re in the Congress,” he said.
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