A house Democrat is calling for new congressional leaders in her party after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to call up legislation to impose tougher stock trading restrictions on Congress members.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) attacked Pelosi for a “failure of House leadership,” accusing her of shutting down the idea that would ban lawmakers from trading.
“This moment marks a failure of House leadership — and it's yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill, as I have long made known,” Spanberger said.
The Democrat said that she has been working with members for two years to create a bill that would strengthen the STOCK Act, which is a 2012 law that prohibits lawmakers from using inside information to profit from stock trading.
“[A]fter first signaling her opposition to these reforms, the Speaker purportedly reversed her position… however, our bipartisan reform coalition was then subjected to repeated delay tactics, hand-waving gestures and blatant instances of Lucy pulling the football,” Spanberger said.
Spanberger called out Pelosi for stringing the media and the public along, ignoring those who believe the bill is necessary.
Earlier this week the Committee on House Administration released a part of the "Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act, which was sponsored by a close ally to Pelosi, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif).
Spanberger accused Pelosi and her colleagues of creating the provision, knowing it would fail upon arrival.
“Kitchen-sink package that they knew would immediately crash upon arrival, with only days remaining before the end of the legislative session and no time to fix it,” Spanberger said, adding “the package released earlier this week was designed to fail. It was written to create confusion surrounding reform efforts and complicate a straightforward reform priority… all while creating the appearance that House Leadership wanted to take action.”
Following the event, Pelosi was asked about Spanberger’s comments saying that it is still a work in progress.