Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas is the latest member of Congress to violate a federal conflict-of-interest law

• Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, was days late disclosing four stock purchases.
• Doggett said an "oversight" caused him to improperly report reinvestments of dividends.

A Democratic member of the US House of Representatives violated a conflicts-of-interest and transparency law by failing to publicly report four stock share purchases by a federal deadline.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, was days late disclosing he purchased stock in Home Depot Inc., IBM Corp., pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, and paint company PPG Industries Inc.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 requires members of Congress to file financial disclosures within 45 days of making a stock transaction — either their own, or those of their spouse or dependent children. Doggett should have disclosed his early- and mid-September stock purchases by mid- to late October, but he didn't until November 1.

In an email to Insider, Doggett acknowledged his late disclosures and explained that an "oversight" resulted him in improperly reporting automatic dividend reinvestments from the four stocks, which he already owned.

"I have not engaged in active trading of individual stocks for many years. I continue to hold the same seven individual stocks acquired long ago," Doggett said.

The congressman noted he did disclose his purchased within a "grace period" that the Committee on House Ethics extends to lawmakers who file their late stock disclosures within 30 days past the STOCK Act's deadline, allowing them to avoid a standard fine of $200.

Taken together, Doggett's latest stock purchases are worth between $4,004 and $60,000 — members of Congress are only required to disclose their stock trades in broad ranges.

Doggett's most recent annual personal financial disclosure indicates that he owns between $500,000 and $1 million worth of stock in Home Depot, between $250,000 and $500,000 in IBM, between $250,000 to $500,000 in PPG Industries, and between $100,000 and $250,000 in Johnson & Johnson.

Doggett joins eight other members of Texas' congressional delegation — Republican Reps. Pat Fallon, Dan Crenshaw, Pete Sessions, Roger Williams, August Pfluger, Lance Gooden, and Michael Burgess, and Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez — who have violated the STOCK Act's disclosure provisions.

A potential stock-trade ban

Since 2021, Insider and other media organizations have identified 74 members of Congress — a cross-section of Republicans and Democrats, leaders and back-benchers — who've violated the STOCK Act's disclosure provisions by failing to properly report their various financial trades or holdings.

Insider's ongoing "Conflicted Congress" project, along with reporting from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Sludge, have also found numerous examples of financial conflicts-of-interests among federal lawmakers, judges, and executive branch officials.

Calls for reform have come from numerous quarters inside and outside of Congress. And in September, after months of deliberations, dickering, and delay, Democratic House leaders — backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi — unveiled a bill that would ban members of Congress, as well as many other top government officials, from trading individual stocks. It would also strengthen the generally weak penalties for violating the STOCK Act.

But some Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as government reform groups, immediately lambasted it, either arguing that the bill is too broad or too riddled with loopholes, such as allowing lawmakers to create blind investment trusts that they don't consider truly blind.

House leadership ultimately punted on voting until after the midterm elections, meaning it'll be mid-November before debate on the stock-ban bill resumes in earnest.

Asked if he supported the House leadership stock-ban bill, Doggett, who currently represents a highly gerrymandered district that snakes along the Interstate 35 corridor from San Antonio to Austin, did not commit one way or another.

"I am supportive of a ban on active trading of individual stocks," he said.