Senate panel advances congressional stock trading ban, Hawley the lone GOP yes vote

A Senate committee on Wednesday advanced a congressional stock-trading ban with only one Republican vote in the GOP-controlled panel. 

The measure advanced in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and is sponsored by member Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican.

The vote was 8-7, with the other seven "yes" votes coming from committee Democrats. 

Hawley's original bill, which he called the PELOSI Act, was named after Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has faced scrutiny for her husband's extensive trading, despite a lack of evidence that it was done using congressional insider information, POLITICO reported. 

The original bill barred Congress members and their spouses from trading stocks.

However, Hawley offered an alternative bill to the committee along with the panel's top Democrat, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, that changed the name and extended the prohibitions to the president and vice president in future administrations.

“We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted us to do for decades, and that is to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that, frankly, only members of Congress have,” Hawley said.

The other Republican committee members argued that the bill would unfairly punish the wealthy and disincentivize some people from serving in Congress.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who had co-sponsored the original PELOSI Act with Hawley, called the effort a “publicity show” and said the committee was moving too quickly to approve the new legislation.

“It is important for us to restore faith in our institutions, but to just put a vote out there, when we have literally no idea what we’re voting for, is gross incompetence,” Moreno said. “This is the most absurd process I’ve ever seen.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he did not think the new legislation was needed because of the current rules regarding insider trading, warning it would have unintended consequences. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., accused Hawley of breaking a promise to work with him to improve the bill.

“I don’t know when in this country it became a negative to make money,” Scott said, explaining his own rags-to-riches story. “How many of you don’t want to make money? Anybody want to be poor?” he asked the attendees in the hearing room.