(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised that the House would hold a vote in September on legislation to ban insider trading, and she blamed Republican opposition for failing to bring it forward.
“We didn’t have the votes,” Pelosi said at the Congressional Black Caucus Phoenix Awards on Oct. 1, Just the News reported.
The House voted in late September to go into recess until after the November midterm elections, so the American people will not see which candidates want to line their own pcoketbooks until next year at the earliest.
“I wish we would’ve had the Republicans to vote for it because we’re almost there, but there are a few of our members who just, Steny has said he doesn’t want to vote for it, but I can only lose three votes,” Pelosi told Just the News.
Before going into recess, the House voted to fund the federal government through Dec. 16.
Some Republicans supported the ban in principle, though not necessarily the Democrat-introduced 26-page anti-insider trading bill, called the “Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act,” Fox Business reported.
Both Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have spoken in favor of banning insider trading. Even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Republicans will consider similar legislation if they take the House in the new year.
Yet, Pelosi would not put it up for a vote.
“They claim they are for it, but it doesn’t add up, so you can’t bring it without the votes,” she said.
“I don’t know that I’m against it as it is,” he said. “What I said was it was just reported, members need to look at, it’s complicated, it’s going to have a broad effect, and they need to look at it. So I was against putting it on the floor, you know, with 48 hours notice.”
