Congress has scheduled a reckoning with lawmakers' personal stock trading

• A US House panel plans to meet next week to debate a congressional stock trading ban.
• Lawmakers have introduced several bills to limit or ban their own stock trades.

A hearing has been set for March 16 to debate the merits of banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

The hearing represents a dramatic acceleration in the now-bipartisan push to combat congressional conflicts-of-interest and tighten flaccid enforcement rules.

The announcement from the Committee on House Administration does not include a list of witnesses, but two sources confirmed to Insider that the committee has asked for testimony from nonprofit anti-corruption organizations, including the Project on Government Oversight and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

They've also invited testimony from the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan research institute that operates from the Library of Congress.

Insider exclusively reported on March 1 that the hearing was in the works after receiving confirmation from two sources who had direct knowledge of the plans but were not authorized to speak publicly. The hearing was initially planned for next week, but CQ Roll call reported that Democrats changed the schedule in light of a retreat they have from March 9 to March 11 in Philadelphia.

Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who chairs the committee, said in a statement that the Committee on House Administration had spent the past few weeks analyzing the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, the 2012 law that says members of Congress are supposed to regularly disclose their stock trades.

Lofgren said the committee has looked at how members are falling short in making timely disclosures, and is considering new penalties "to create greater transparency and accountability in Congress."

Committee Republicans haven't decided on a witness yet but will likely call someone with experience dealing with transparency and compliance for executives of publicly traded companies, according to a source with direct knowledge of the hearing who was not authorized to discuss it. The person also said Republicans are considering inviting members of Congress in to discuss the issue as part of a panel.

An early version of President Joe Biden's State of the Union called for Congress to pass a bill that would restrict or ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks, according to the Washington Post. But the president ultimately did not touch on the issue when he spoke before the House chamber on Tuesday.

"I certainly wanted him to mention it, primarily because it matters to people," said Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat of Virginia who introduced the bipartisan TRUST in Congress Act that would require members of Congress and their spouses to put their assets into a blind trust. "I have been hearing about it across my district."

To date, Biden has largely deferred to Congress on whether to pass new laws concerning the private investments of public officials.

The hearing follows publication in December of Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project — a five-month investigation that found that dozens of lawmakers and at least 182 senior congressional staffers had failed to comply with the reporting requirements of the STOCK Act.

It also identified numerous conflicts-of-interest issues. Dozens of lawmakers' personal stock trades are discordant with their public responsibilities, such as members who craft anti-tobacco policy but invest in tobacco giants and others who receive plaudits from environmental groups for crafting policy aimed at combating the climate crisis — yet invest in fossil fuel companies.

The issue of banning congressional stock trades is backed by most voters on both the left and right, according to several recent polls, and has energized members of Congress to campaign on the issue.

Two bills, the Ban Conflicted Trading Act and the TRUST in Congress Act, have bipartisan support. They would prevent members of Congress from trading stocks while in office either by forcing them to hold existing investments for the duration of their terms or by putting their assets into a blind trust. The main difference is that TRUST in Congress Act would extend the ban to spouses.

"I'm going to continue agitating for this bill, agitating for the principles of it that matter, agetating for it in a version that will actually get a vote and actually make meaningful impact," Spanberger said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had asked the committee to consider whether members of Congress should face higher penalties when they fail to report their stock trades on time. Insider's investigation concluded that the House has a spotty track record of enforcing late penalties.

Pelosi in December appeared unwilling to entertain legislative debate on a congressional stock ban, and affirmed her stance that members of Congress should be allowed to trade individual stocks.

"We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that," Pelosi at the time.

By January, however, Pelosi faced significant pressure from Republicans and Democrats alike to change her mind. She shifted course, saying that House members could decide for themselves.

Pelosi doesn't trade individual stocks, but her husband, Paul Pelosi, has in recent months traded stock and stock options together worth millions of dollars.

This story originally published March 1 and has been updated to reflect official confirmation.

Warren Rojas contributed.