Johnson, Steil brief lawmakers on new plan to address insider trading on the Hill

Speaker Mike Johnson and House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) briefed a group of GOP members Thursday about their new plan to address insider trading among lawmakers — indicating they could draft a new piece of legislation that would get a floor vote as soon as January, according to two people with direct knowledge granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a brief interview his goal is to put the legislation on the floor “early next year,” but he said he would not commit to January.

Johnson’s move comes as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and a group of Republicans have been pushing their own discharge petition to force a vote on a bipartisan consensus bill to ban members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks — but senior and some rank-and-file Republicans are opposed to that legislation, saying it's too restrictive

Instead, the new proposal Steil is expected to shepherd through his panel may allow lawmakers to hold mutual funds and is expected to have a lighter touch — cracking down on members of Congress participating in insider trading while building consensus with skeptical Republicans, including those on the financial services panel.

The plan will likely incorporate some pieces of legislation to ban stock trading among members of Congress Republicans like Luna have been working on this year.

Luna told reporters leaving the meeting there's been discussions about potentially changing the House rules in order to implement part of the crackdown.

House Democrats are also pushing for a broader stock-trading bill that would include the executive branch. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), the lead sponsor, said they're aiming to introduce a discharge petition to attempt to force it to the House floor.

“Anything short of an actual ban on members owning and trading stocks won't solve the problem, and won't be enough for a public that expects a full ban, and so I'm hopeful that the speaker will bring a strong bill to the floor,” Magaziner said of the legislation being rolled out by GOP leaders.

Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.