Senator Sets Trap for Nancy Pelosi

(Republicaninformer.com)- Josh Hawley has sponsored a bill to prevent elected leaders from owning securities and investments. The acronym for the legislation is PELOSI.

The Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act is a bill that pointedly refers to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who came under fire last year after her husband, Paul Pelosi, purchased up to $5 million in stock in a semiconductor company just as the Senate was passing legislation to subsidize the semiconductor industry heavily.

Hawley said that “politicians in Washington have exploited the economic system they make the rules for far too long, making profits for themselves at the cost of the American people.” Representatives are responsible for providing oversight of the same firms they trade.

Members of Congress and their spouses would not be permitted to own, acquire, or sell equities while in office under Hawley’s PELOSI Act. According to the law, members and their spouses have six months from the time they take office to sell any equities they own or transfer them to a blind trust.

Pelosi was in the notorious group of Republicans and Democrats that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in stock trading in 2021 and outperformed the market. Representatives Austin Scott (R-GA), Brian Mast (R-FL), French Hill (R-AR), John Curtis (R-UT), and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) are among the Republicans that did well.

Members of Congress would be required to relinquish any gains to the US Treasury if they or their spouses were found to be in breach of the laws. Additionally, violators couldn’t write off such losses when filing their taxes.

According to the proposed law, the House and Senate ethics committees would have the authority to penalize members of Congress for such offenses and be obligated to make such fines public to the American people. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) would be mandated under the law to audit Congress members to ensure they are abiding by the regulations.