Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) criticized lawmakers involved in insider trading, saying they belong “on Wall Street,” not in Congress.
“Americans understand what’s going on with Congress,” Burchett said Sunday on the “Cats Roundtable” radio show hosted by John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM. “When they see their members of Congress making three, four, 500 percent returns, dadgum it, they ought not be in Congress, they ought to be on Wall Street.”
Burchett called it wrong and said, “everybody knows it, and I think it’s crooked as a dog’s leg, and we need to outlaw it.”
On September 3, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the “Restore Trust in Congress Act,” which combines previous proposals to ban stock trading by members of Congress and their families. If passed, the bill would fine lawmakers 10% of the investment’s value for violations and require them to forfeit any related profits.
“If you want a day trade, leave Congress,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, previously said. “It’s that simple.”
“We’re not going to judge what you did before now, but now that this bill is going to come to the floor — and we’re going to make sure of that — it’s your chance to get right with the American people because at the end of the day, Congress is not a casino,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) also said.
In August, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged a ban on lawmakers trading individual stocks, singling out former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Ron Wyden for their “eye-popping returns.”
“People shouldn’t come to Washington to get rich, they should come to serve the American people, and it brings down trust in the system because I can tell you that if any private citizen traded this way, the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] would be knocking on their door,” Bessent said in the interview.
