States are largely barred from regulating members of Congress, such as trying to ban them from trading individual stocks.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis supports a ban and is pitching a new workaround he says would at least give Florida voters more transparency on their federal representatives' investments.
“You let people get elected to Congress having never shown any investment acumen ever in their life, and then all of a sudden they become Warren Buffett on steroids,” DeSantis said at a Tuesday press conference in Clearwater.
He proposes an election law change that would require candidates to check a box indicating whether they intend to trade individual stocks. When they run for reelection, they’d have to disclose whether or not they did.
“If they say yes, then that means they broke their word to you and honestly lied on those forms,” DeSantis said. “So that's what we're going to do. It's within our power to do that.”
Florida's legislative session begins next week.
The governor also endorsed a bill by Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna that bans members and their immediate family members from individual stock trading.
There are currently congressional investment disclosure requirements and insider trading laws, but lawmakers’ stock trading practices have long raised questions about conflicts of interest and public trust.
Luna pointed out the profitable investments made by the husband of California U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House. Those trades have drawn such widespread attention they are publicly tracked and even copied by some investors.
But Luna said insider stock trading is an issue on both sides of the aisle.
“How could you ever expect members of Congress to truly work for the American people if this is indeed what they're doing and it's wrong and it needs to stop,” she said at the Tuesday press conference.
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This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
