Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger bought and sold defense contractor stocks in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine

• Harshbarger, of Tennessee, is one of Congress' most active stock traders.
• She bought stock in Northrop Grumman on February 25, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Republican of Tennessee, and her husband bought or sold stock in three major US defense contractors in days following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to new congressional financial disclosures reviewed by Insider.

Harshbarger or her husband, Robert Harshbarger, purchased between $4,004 and $60,000 worth of Northrop Grumman stock on February 25, the day after the invasion began, the records indicate.

Northrop Grumman stock closed at just under $410 per share that day and has risen sharply since, trading around $455 per share by April 1. Lawmakers are only required to publicly report the value of their stock trades in broad ranges, which prevents an exact valuation of their trades.

On March 2, the Harshbargers sold up to $60,000 worth of stock in Oshkosh Corp., then on March 15, sold up to $30,000 worth of stock in L3Harris Technologies Inc.

Harshbarger's chief of staff Zac Rutherford declined to comment on the congresswoman's defense contractor stock trades. In a statement to Insider in August, Rutherford said that Harshbarger employs a financial planner to make stock trades on her behalf and does so "without any authorization, direction, or approval from Congresswoman Harshbarger."

Harshbarger's stock trades are the latest example of members of Congress buying and selling stock in defense contractors that depend on congressional appropriations to earn money and whose fortunes might rise or fall based on decisions the government makes.

At least 15 members of the House and Senate armed services committees, which oversee defense policy, reported owning defense contractor stock.

Separately, at least 19 members of Congress personally invest in Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, the companies that manufacture the Javelin and Stinger missile systems that Western nations have sent to Ukraine to defend against Russian tanks and aircraft.

Defense contractors together spend tens of millions of dollars annually to lobby the federal government to influence policy. Northrop Grumman alone spent nearly $10.7 million during 2021 to lobby the federal government, including Congress, according to federal lobbying records compiled by nonprofit research organization OpenSecrets.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager for nonpartisan watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, said it's "bunk" for Harshbarger, or any member of Congress, to shift responsibility for one's personal stock trades to a money manager or stock broker.

"She and her family bear ultimate responsibility, and if they so choose, they can direct their financial advisor to manage their investments in such a way so as to avoid conflicts or even the appearance of conflicts," he said. "Given the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars funneled to the Pentagon every year, and given the optics of personally profiting when defense companies get government contracts, members of Congress should be prohibited from having these investments at all."

A stock trade ban?

The Committee on House Administration is scheduled to conduct a public hearing April 7 on that topic: whether federal lawmakers — and potentially their immediate family members — should be allowed to buy and sell individual stocks.

The hearing will also address enforcement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, a law designed to defend against conflicts of interest and promote transparency.

Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project in December found that dozens of lawmakers, and at least 182 senior congressional staffers, had failed to comply with the reporting requirements of the STOCK Act.

"Conflicted Congress" also found numerous examples of conflicts of interest, including that four members of Congress or their spouses have either currently or recently invested money in Russian companies at a time when Russia has invaded Ukraine.

Harshbarger is one of Congress' most active stock traders, often making dozens, if not hundreds of individual trades each month.

In August, Insider reported that Harshbarger violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012's disclosure provisions by failing to properly disclose more than 700 individual stock trades together worth between $728,000 and $10.9 million.