The president of the room, Mike Johnson, says that he supports the ban on the members of the Congress to negotiate actions – but has a “sympathy” for arguments against him.
“I am in favor of that, because I do not think that we should have an appearance of irregularity,” Johnson told journalists on Wednesday, before adding that there is another side to the argument.
The speaker, whose personal finances are relatively modest, noted that the annual wages of the members of the basic congress have remained frozen at $ 174,000 since 2009 and that certain legislators may have trouble operating the work financially.
“If you stay on this trajectory, you will have less qualified people who are ready to make the extreme sacrifice to present themselves at the Congress,” said Johnson. “So, the counter argument is – and I have a certain sympathy – look, at least, leave them, like, to negotiate actions, so that they can continue, you know, take care of their family.”
The speaker had previously declared to NPR that he was “open to conversation” on a prohibition to negotiate actions, but had refused at the time to take a stand.
Johnson does not have an exchange of stocks itself, according to its financial disclosure of 2023. The member of the Congress of Louisiana is much less rich than most of the members of the Congress and formerly slept in his office of Capitol Hill.
On Wednesday, the speaker continued saying that the flagrant insider trading would not be tolerated.
“Listen, we have no tolerance for anything even resembling an exchange of initiates, or any type of advantage that everyone can take, zero tolerance for that,” said Johnson. “And we will eliminate ourselves.”
Trade in actions by Congress members has been controversial for years, and legislators have made several attempts to ban practice.
The idea has taken more momentum in recent weeks after President Donald Trump said he would sign a prohibition to negotiate stock.
Democrats also drew attention to the exchange of well -chronic action carried out by the republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia during a drop in the stock market caused by the announcement of the Trump April 2 rate.
He is not the only person to benefit from it. Democratic representative Jared Moskowitz, from Florida, also plunged tens of thousands of dollars into shares during the same period, just a few days before Trump’s announcement of a 90 -day “reciprocal” price pause caused a rebound on the market.
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