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      ‘An abomination’: Pelosi leads outcry on supreme court draft abortion ruling

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      ‘An abomination’: Pelosi leads outcry on supreme court draft abortion rulingSpeaker warns scrapping Roe v Wade would be ‘greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years’ as AOC calls for Senate reform

      US politics – live coverage
      Supporters of abortion rights reacted with outrage to the leak on Monday night of a supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which has safeguarded the right till now.According to Politico, the draft ruling, written by Samuel Alito, is supported by Clarence Thomas and the three conservative justices appointed by Donald Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.It would also overturn Planned Parenthood v Casey, a 1992 decision which upheld Roe.Supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade abortion law, leaked draft opinion reportedly showsRead moreNancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, said: “If the report is accurate, the supreme court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans.“The Republican-appointed justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history,” Pelosi said.“Several of these conservative justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the US Senate, ripped up the constitution and defiled both precedent and the supreme court’s reputation.”Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said an “extremist supreme court” was poised to “impose its far-right, unpopular views on the entire country.“It’s time for the millions who support the constitution and abortion rights to stand up and make their voices heard,” she said. “We’re not going back – not ever.”If confirmed, the ruling would make abortion rights a state matter. As many as 26 Republican-run states are poised to end or restrict access.Congress could codify Roe into law but it would require scrapping the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires a 60-vote majority for most legislation. That seems unlikely, given the 50-50 split in the chamber and opposition from moderate Democrats such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia.Republican senators including Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have expressed concern over abortion rights, were slower to react to the Politico report than their Democratic counterparts. Their support would be needed for filibuster reform.Among progressives, outrage was fierce.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, tied her outrage to calls for Senate reform and to impeach Thomas, the senior conservative on the court, over the political activities of his wife around the January 6 insurrection.Tell us: have you had to travel to another US state for an abortion? Read moreOcasio-Cortez also warned of possible court moves on other hitherto protected rights.“[The court] isn’t just coming for abortion – they’re coming for the right to privacy Roe rests on, which includes gay marriage and civil rights.“Manchin is blocking Congress codifying Roe. House has seemingly forgotten about Clarence Thomas. These two points must change.”Ocasio-Cortez also took aim at Joe Biden, calling for the use of executive actions.“People elected Democrats precisely so we could lead in perilous moments like these – to codify Roe, hold corruption accountable and have a president who uses his legal authority to break through congressional gridlock on items from student debt to climate. It’s high time we do it.“If we don’t, what message does that send? We can’t sit around, finger-point and hand-wring as people’s futures and equality are on the line. It’s time to be decisive, lead with confidence, fight for a prosperous future for all and protect the vulnerable. Leave it all on the field.”Campaigners were equally vocal.The National Women’s Law Center called the “language in the draft opinion … outrageous, irresponsible and shocking”. Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the women’s health provider Planned Parenthood, called the draft ruling “horrifying and unprecedented”.Laphonza Butler, president of the advocacy group Emily’s List, pointed to the effect the draft ruling could have on Democratic campaigning and turnout in the November midterm elections.Supreme court abortion law leak: what happened and why does it matter?Read more“For years, anti-choice politicians have worked overtime to strip away our fundamental rights and give government control of critical healthcare decisions. They are working to ban abortion, full stop. This was the plan all along.“It’s past time to vote out every official who stands against the pro-choice majority.“We will fight harder than ever to make them pay, by electing more Democratic pro-choice women at all levels of government who will protect our rights and ensure that our abortion rights do not depend on our zip code or our financial situation. And we will work to vote every one of them out.”Cecile Richards, formerly president of Planned Parenthood, pointed to polling which shows clear support for abortion rights.“This is not what the American people want,” she said. “This is Republican politicians putting government in charge of your pregnancy. Full stop.”TopicsAbortionUS supreme courtUS politicsNancy PelosiAlexandria Ocasio-CortezDemocratsLaw (US)newsReuse this content More

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      Grand jury chosen to help determine whether Trump interfered in Georgia’s 2020 elections – as it happened

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      US politics liveUS politicsGrand jury chosen to help determine whether Trump interfered in Georgia’s 2020 elections – as it happened
      Panel will look into the former president’s attempts to influence the outcome of the election in the state
      US lawmakers head home after Kyiv, Warsaw discussions
      Capitol attack committee requests cooperation from key Republicans
      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
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       Updated 1h agoRichard LuscombeMon 2 May 2022 16.11 EDTFirst published on Mon 2 May 2022 09.28 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyFrom More

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      Approval for Biden Ukraine aid request likely after Pelosi Kyiv visit, McCaul says

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      Approval for Biden Ukraine aid request likely after Pelosi Kyiv visit, McCaul saysRepublican says House likely to approve $33bn but also says Democrats have not acted quickly enough

      Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
      Joe Biden’s $33bn request to Congress for more aid for Ukraine is likely to receive swift approval from lawmakers, a senior Republican said on Sunday, as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a surprise visit to the war-riven country.Scholz defends Ukraine policy as criticism mounts in Germany Read moreThe president on Thursday had asked for the money for military and humanitarian support for Ukraine as it fights to repulse the Russian invasion now in its third month.Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and ranking member of the House foreign affairs committee, went on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulous and said he expected the chamber would look favorably on the request in the coming weeks.McCaul’s comments came while Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the House speaker promised on behalf of the US: “We are here until victory is won.”McCaul was asked if he believed Congress would quickly pass Biden’s requested package, which includes $20bn in military aid, $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief.“Yes, I do,” McCaul said. “Time is of the essence. The next two to three weeks are going to be very pivotal and very decisive in this war. And I don’t think we have a lot of time to waste. I wish we had [Biden’s request] a little bit sooner, but we have it now.”McCaul added that he believed Republicans, who have supported the Democratic president’s previous financial requests for Ukraine, might have acted more expediently if they held the House majority.The chamber is not sitting during the coming week while members tend to in-district affairs, delaying debate and a vote on the aid package.“If I were speaker for a day, I’d call Congress back into session, back into work,” he said.“Every day we don’t send them more weapons is a day where more people will be killed and a day where they could lose this war. I think they can win it. But we have to give them the tools to do it.”Meanwhile, Bob Menendez, the Democratic New Jersey senator who chairs the upper chamber’s foreign relations committee, echoed Pelosi’s pledge that the US would continue to support Ukraine financially.“We will do what it takes to see Ukraine win because it’s not just about Ukraine, it’s about the international order,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.“If Ukraine does not win, if [Russia’s president Vladimir] Putin can ultimately not only succeed in the Donbas but then be emboldened to go further, if he strikes a country under our treaty obligations with Nato, then we would be directly engaged.“So stopping Russia from getting to that point is of critical interest to us, as well as the world, so we don’t have to send our sons and daughters into battle. That ability not to have to send our sons and daughters into battle is priceless.”Menendez said that the US and its allies needed to “keep our eye on the ball” over a possible Russian move into Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, where explosions were heard in recent days.“I think that the Ukrainians care about what’s going to happen in Transnistria, because it’s another attack point against Ukraine,” he said.“We need to keep our eye on the ball. And that is about helping Ukraine and Ukrainians ultimately being able to defeat the butcher of Moscow. If we do that, the world will be safer. The international order will be preserved, and others who are looking at what is happening in Ukraine will have to think twice.”Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), laid out the urgent need for Congress to approve the package during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.“There are vast swaths of Ukraine that have been newly liberated by Ukrainian forces, where there is desperate need, everything from demining to trauma kits to food assistance, since markets are not back up and running,” she said, noting that from previously approved drawdowns “assistance is flowing”.But she said that 40 million people could be pushed into poverty, and demands for help would only grow.“We’re already spending some of that money, but the burn rate is very, very high as prices spiral inside Ukraine and outside Ukraine,” Power said. “So that’s why this supplemental is so important. It entails $3bn of humanitarian assistance to meet those global needs, which are famine-level, acute malnutrition needs.“And it includes very significant direct budget support for the government of Ukraine, because we want to ensure the government can continue providing services for its people.”“Putin would like nothing more than the government of Ukraine to go bankrupt and not be able to cater to the needs of the people. We can’t let that happen.”TopicsUS CongressRepublicansJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsUkraineNancy PelosinewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Safe-passage operation’ evacuates 100 people from besieged Mariupol steelworks

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      ‘Safe-passage operation’ evacuates 100 people from besieged Mariupol steelworksPeople sheltering in Azovstal plant, one of the last strongholds in the city, endured weeks of brutal conditions

      Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
      Scores of people who had been sheltering under a steel plant that is the last redoubt for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol have managed to at last leave, after enduring weeks under brutal siege in the destroyed port city.The UN confirmed on Sunday that a “safe-passage operation” to evacuate civilians had begun, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ukraine and Russia, but declined to give further details in order to protect people.As many as 100,000 people are believed to be in the blockaded city, which has endured some of the most terrible suffering of the Russian invasion. These include 1,000 civilians and 2,000 Ukrainian fighters thought to be sheltering in bunkers and tunnels underneath the Soviet-era Azovstal steelworks, the only part of the ruined city not taken by Russian forces.After enduring a vicious weeks-long siege that forced people into confinement in basements, without food, water, heat or electricity, Russian forces closed in, leaving the steelworks as the last remaining stronghold. Vladimir Putin decided not to storm the plant, but called on Russian troops to blockade the area “so that a fly can’t get through”.On Sunday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 100 civilians were being evacuated from the ruined steelworks to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia. Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak suggested the evacuations could go further than just the civilians holed up in the steelworks. “This is just the first step, and we will continue to take our civilians and troops out of Mariupol,” he wrote on Telegram.Earlier, Reuters reported that more than 50 civilians in separate groups had arrived from the plant on Sunday in Bezimenne, a village about 20 miles (33km) east of Mariupol in territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists. The group arrived in buses with Ukrainian number plates as part of a convoy with Russian forces and vehicles with UN symbols.News of the evacuation came as the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, met Zelenskiy in Kyiv, where she pledged enduring support for his country’s “fight for freedom”. Pelosi, whose visit was not announced beforehand, is the highest-level US official to meet the Ukrainian president since the war began.Earlier this weekend, a senior soldier with the Azov regiment at the steelworks said 20 women and children had managed to get out. “We are getting civilians out of the rubble with ropes – it’s the elderly, women and children,” Sviatoslav Palamar told Reuters. On his Telegram channel, Palamar called for the evacuation of the wounded: “We don’t know why they are not taken away and their evacuation to the territory controlled by Ukraine is not being discussed.”Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that 80 people, including women and children, had left the Azovstal works, according to the state news agency Ria Novosti.The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Thursday when meeting Zelenskiy in Kyiv that intense discussions were under way to evacuate the Azovstal plant.Russian forces have obliterated the once thriving port city of Mariupol, a major target for Moscow because of its strategic location near Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.In his Sunday blessing, Pope Francis repeated his implicit criticism of Russia, as he said Mariupol had been “barbarously bombarded and destroyed”. Addressing the faithful at St Peter’s Square in Rome, the pope said he suffered and cried “thinking of the suffering of the Ukrainian population, in particular the weakest, the elderly, the children”.01:09Meanwhile, Zelenskiy released footage on Sunday of an earlier meeting between him, Pelosi and the US House representatives Jason Crow, Jim McGovern, Gregory Meeks and Adam Schiff. The US speaker pledged America’s support “until the fight is done”.“We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom,” she said in video footage released on Zelenskiy’s Twitter account. “And that your fight is a fight for everyone, and so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.”Speaking at a press conference in Poland on Sunday, Pelosi said the US would hold its resolve, after being asked whether Washington was concerned about its support provoking a Russian reaction. “Let me speak for myself: do not be bullied by bullies,” she said. “If they are making threats, you cannot back down.”Crow, a Democrat, armed forces veteran and member of the House intelligence and armed services committee, said he came to Ukraine with three areas of focus: “weapons, weapons and weapons.”“The United States of America is in this to win and we will stand with Ukraine until victory is won,” he said.Last week Joe Biden called for a $33bn (£26bn) package of military, humanitarian and economic support for Ukraine, more than doubling the level of US assistance to date. The US president asked Congress to immediately approve the aid, which dwarfs Ukraine’s entire defence budget.GraphicWhile the US is increasing support for Ukraine, Germany’s chancellor rejected criticism that Berlin was not doing enough. In an interview with Bild am Sonntag, Olaf Scholz said he took decisions “fast and in concert with our partners”.Meanwhile it emerged that the EU is looking at banning Russian oil imports from the end of 2022, in the latest effort to cut funds to Vladimir Putin’s war machine. Germany announced on Sunday it had made sharp reductions in its dependency on Russian fossil fuels, slashing oil imports from Russia to 12%, compared to 35% before the Russian invasion. Russian gas imports to Europe’s biggest economy have dropped to 35% from a pre-invasion figure of 55%. Ukraine is now looking to China, as well as other permanent members of the UN security council, to provide security guarantees. In an interview with the Chinese state news agency Xinhua released on Sunday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said the proposal for China to provide a security guarantee was “a sign of our respect and trust in the People’s Republic of China”.On the 67th day of the war, Russia continued its refigured campaign to seize parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, after failing to take Kyiv. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday it had attacked an airfield near Odesa and claimed to have destroyed a hangar that contained weapons provided by foreign countries. “High-precision Onyx rockets at a military aerodrome in the Odesa region destroyed a hangar with weapons and ammunition from the United States and European countries, and also destroyed the runway,” said a spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry, quoted by Ria Novosti. The report has not been independently verified.Meanwhile, the governor of Kharkiv warned residents on Sunday not to leave shelters because of “intense shelling”. Oleh Synyehubov asked residents in the north and eastern districts of the city, especially Saltivka, not to leave their shelters unless it was urgent.In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy urged Russian troops not to fight in Ukraine, saying even their generals expected that thousands more of them would die.He accused Moscow of recruiting new soldiers “with little motivation and little combat experience” so that units gutted early in the war can be thrown back into battle. “Every Russian soldier can still save his own life,” Zelenskiy said. “It’s better for you to survive in Russia than to perish on our land.”As the first civilians were reported to have left the Azovstal plant, pictures showed a dire situation for the several thousand who remained.Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BSTVideo and images shared with the Associated Press by two Ukrainian women who said their husbands were among the fighters refusing to surrender at the plant showed unidentified men with stained bandages, while others had open wounds or amputated limbs.A skeleton medical staff was treating at least 600 wounded people, said the women, who identified their husbands as members of the Azov regiment of Ukraine’s national guard. Some of the wounds were rotting with gangrene, they said.In the video the men said that they were eating just once daily and sharing as little as 1.5 litres of water a day among four people, and that supplies inside the besieged facility were depleted.AP could not independently verify the date and location of the video, which the women said was taken in the last week in the maze of corridors and bunkers beneath the plant.The women urged that Ukrainian fighters also be evacuated alongside civilians, warning they could be tortured and executed if captured. “The lives of soldiers matter, too,” Yuliia Fedusiuk told the news agency.Associated Press contributed to this report.TopicsUkraineEuropeRussiaNancy PelosiHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsUS foreign policynewsReuse this content More

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      ‘I know how much it hurts’: Biden to release US oil in bid to lower gas prices – as it happened

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      Key events

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      ‘Incontrovertible evidence that this [war] has been a strategic disaster for Russia’ – White House

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      Biden: Putin may be in ‘self-isolation’

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      Romney: $10bn ‘agreement in principle’ over Covid relief

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      Biden confirms draw on oil reserves to lower gas prices

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      Pelosi wants inquiry on Russia’s ‘crimes against children’

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      Oil prices plunge as Biden mulls 180m barrel release

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      Biden confirms draw on oil reserves to lower gas prices

      Joe Biden says his plan to release 1m barrels daily from the US strategic oil reserves will: “Ease the pain families are feeling right now, end this era of dependence and uncertainty and lay a new and new foundation for true and lasting American energy independence.”
      The president is speaking live at the White House to announce the move, which he said would last up to six months and which will represent the largest ever draw ever on the country’s emergency supplies.
      “I know how much it hurts,” he said of rising gas prices that have followed the decision by the Russian president Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.
      “Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.” More

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      January 6 rioter who carried Nancy Pelosi’s podium fined and sentenced

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      January 6 rioter who carried Nancy Pelosi’s podium fined and sentencedFloridian Adam Johnson shouted encouragement to rioters breaking down the doors to the House chamber The Capitol rioter who was pictured carrying Nancy Pelosi’s lectern and bragged he had “broken the internet” in doing so has been sentenced to 75 days in prison and a $5,000 fine.Adam Johnson, 37 and from Florida, was photographed carrying the podium on 6 January 2021.He and other supporters of Donald Trump stormed Congress in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, in service of Trump’s lie that his defeat was the result of electoral fraud.More than 700 have been charged over the riot, 11 with seditious conspiracy. Trump was impeached but acquitted. He and his aides are the subject of an investigation by a House select committee. One aide, Steve Bannon, has pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt of Congress, a charge that carries jail time.Johnson will spend time in jail, having pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.The US Department of Justice requested 90 days’ imprisonment. It also noted, in itemising Johnson’s activities on 6 January 2021, that he “witnessed rioters attempt to break down the doors to the House chamber and encouraged them to do so by shouting that a bust of George Washington would make ‘a great battering ram’”.In court on Friday, assistant US attorney Jessica Arco said: “Mr Johnson was part of a mob. He knew that.”Lawyers for Johnson said of his viral photograph: “Unfortunately, he received considerable attention simply because the lectern belonged to Speaker of the House. Arguably, if he latched on to some other piece of government furniture for his photo opportunity jail time would not even be a consideration.”The judge, Reggie B Walton, disagreed.“We’re on a dangerous slide in America,” he said, calling January 6 something he would ordinarily expect to see in “banana republics”.Johnson said he was ashamed, and suggested that if he had acted as he did in other countries he might have ended up in front of a firing squad “instead of [in] a courtroom”.He also said he never intended to hurt Pelosi and said: “If I did find her, I would ask for a selfie with her, if anything.”TopicsUS Capitol attackNancy PelosiUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Money unites: Republicans and Democrats find rare bipartisanship over trading stocks

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      Money unites: Republicans and Democrats find rare bipartisanship over trading stocksDespite wide public support for banning lawmakers from trading stocks, members of both parties have expressed anxiety about the idea Nancy Pelosi probably did not expect to set off such a firestorm with her use of three words: free market economy.When the House speaker was asked in December whether she supports proposals to ban members and their spouses from trading individual stocks, she said no. “We’re a free market economy,” Pelosi said. “They should be able to participate in that.”But Pelosi’s comment sparked ire among government ethics experts and editorial boards, who argued that lawmakers’ ability to glean information from classified briefings and stakeholder meetings raised the possibility of insider trading.Some critics also noted that Pelosi’s husband, Paul, recently netted a gain of more than $5m from trading stocks of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.In the face of backlash, Pelosi has changed her tune on the stock-trading issue, but her hesitation highlighted an uncomfortable truth about how Congresshas responded to the proposal.Despite wide public support for banning lawmakers from trading stocks, members of both parties have expressed anxiety about the idea: a rare moment of bipartisanship in a divided America, but one whose subject – stock-trading politicians – is unlikely to please many voters.Government watchdog groups warn that if Congress fails to act on this issue, it will only intensify many Americans’ concern over how money has tainted their country’s political institutions.The debate over banning members’ stock-trading has been reinvigorated in recent months, after a string of high-profile controversies at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In February 2020, Republican senator Richard Burr sold hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock before the market suffered a severe setback the next month. While he was overseeing those valuable stock trades, Burr was also publicly downplaying the threat of the virus. The justice department investigated Burr and three of his Senate colleagues – Republicans Kelly Loeffler and James Inhofe and Democrat Dianne Feinstein – for possible insider trading, but ultimately no charges were filed.In response to the outcry over those controversies, both Democrats and Republicans have proposed bills to crack down on members’ stock-trading. One bill, introduced by Democratic senators Jon Ossoff and Mark Kelly, would require members, their spouses and their dependent children to place their stock portfolios in a blind trust controlled by an outside party. Republican senator Josh Hawley has proposed a similar bill, although his legislation does not cover dependent children and would not fine members’ salaries for violations, as the Ossoff-Kelly bill would.Over in the House, Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Chip Roy have introduced a similar bill to the Ossoff-Kelly proposal, and more than 50 members have signed on as co-sponsors to the separate Ban Conflicted Trading Act. That bill, which was first introduced by Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, would ban members and senior congressional staffers from trading individual stocks.“It has really gotten to a point where it’s getting a little bit too difficult for the rest of Congress to ignore,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a co-sponsor of Krishnamoorthi’s bill, said at a town hall on Tuesday. “The fact of the matter is, we shouldn’t be able to day-trade the companies whose regulation and whose hearings and whose industries and business is before Congress.”A majority of Americans agree with her. According to a January poll from the progressive firm Data for Progress, 67% of US voters say lawmakers should be banned from trading stocks. Another recent survey, conducted by the conservative advocacy group Convention of States Action, found that 76% of voters believe lawmakers and their spouses have an “unfair advantage” in the stock market.It is illegal for members of Congress, or any American, to engage in insider trading. However, insider trading is very difficult to prove, so in 2012, Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (Stock) Act to address concerns about lawmakers’ financial activities. The law prohibits members from using information gained through work for their own personal profit, and it requires them to disclose stock trades within 45 days.Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have pointed to the existing legislation to argue against banning members from trading stocks. Republican congressman Pete Sessions has described a ban as unnecessary, while one of his Democratic colleagues, Elaine Luria, attacked the proposal as “bullshit”.“Why would you assume that members of Congress are going to be inherently bad or corrupt? We already have the Stock Act that requires people to report stock trades,” Luria told Punchbowl News earlier this month. “So I’m very strongly opposed to any legislation like that.”Advocates for a stock-trading ban were quick to note that Luria and her husband own millions of dollars worth of stocks in Facebook, Netflix and Apple, among other companies.“Honestly, the stock trades by members of Congress just smell bad … Regardless of which party is doing it, it just doesn’t look good,” said RL Miller, the political director of Climate Hawks Vote. Responding to Luria’s comments specifically, Miller added: “Members of Congress expecting that they don’t prioritize companies in which they’re invested is bullshit.”Miller’s group was one of 18 progressive organizations that signed on to a letter urging Congress to hold a hearing on banning stock trades, arguing that the Stock Act and other existing laws “have not served as a sufficient deterrent to this problem”.Enforcement of the Stock Act also appears to have been spotty at best over the past 10 years. No one has ever been prosecuted under the law, and an investigation by Business Insider found that at least 55 members of Congress and 182 senior congressional staffers were late in filing their stock trades in 2020 and 2021. A late filing is supposed to be punished with a $200 fine that increases with subsequent offenses, but Congress does not keep any public record of such fines, and it’s unclear how often they are collected.“The teeth behind the Stock Act are basically non-existent,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight. “We’re seeing that reporting and disclosure do not actually act as any kind of a deterrent to doing things that look, at the very least, pretty sketchy.”Government watchdog groups also argue that the Stock Act is now somewhat outdated. They say the legislation does not properly account for how lawmakers can use the 24-hour news cycle and social media platforms to affect markets and specific companies’ share prices.“We have seen countless examples of how members – not just as a body but individual members – can influence the stock market with a range of tools at their disposal,” said Donald Sherman, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Now we’re at a place in history and on the Hill where an individual member of Congress can influence the stock price with a tweet.”Groups like Crew are hopeful that the momentum for passing a stock-trading ban will soon translate into congressional action. Despite her initial reluctance, Pelosi has now adopted a more open-minded tone about the proposals, and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said the upper chamber should address the issue.“I think this is sort of an easy win that will have a very positive impact on policy-making and on public-facing democracy,” Sherman said.The enactment of a stock-trading ban could have the additional benefit of boosting the public’s opinion of Congress, which has suffered in recent years. According to Gallup’s January polling, only 18% of Americans approve of how Congress is handling its job. Advocates for the proposed stock-trading ban say the policy would bolster public confidence in one of America’s most important political institutions.“Anything that can restore Americans’ trust in Congress is a good thing,” Miller said. “This would help rebut that appearance of double-dealing and go a long way toward restoring Americans’ trust in their leadership.”For those members who are hesitant to give up their stocks, Hedtler-Gaudette suggested they should reconsider their chosen career.“To become a member of Congress is an extraordinarily prestigious thing. But it is not compulsory,” Hedtler-Gaudette said. “There are a number of sacrifices that you have to make to run for office … If this is a problem, then you are not required to run for Congress.”TopicsUS politicsUS CongressDemocratsRepublicansNancy PelosiStock marketsfeaturesReuse this content More