WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Proposed legislation to tighten rules on U.S. lawmakers’ stock holdings and trades should come together later this month, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.
While Pelosi characterized the unfinished legislation as “very strong,” she did not say during a weekly news conference whether congressional staff would be included under its provisions. She gave no details on what the measures will contain.
A House vote on the legislation would follow months of committees trying to put together a bill. Lawmakers will go on a long break next month in the run-up to the Nov. 8 mid-term elections.
The bill’s goal is to make lawmakers’ financial dealings more transparent and impose new limits in order to tamp down possible conflicts of interest.
Early on, Pelosi voiced some reluctance to go ahead with measures that could possibly ban members of Congress from buying and selling stocks and tightening controls on other financial transactions.
But later she said the House would at some point advance a bill.
In July, some stock trades executed by Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, drew attention when he sold his shares of chipmaker Nvidia Corp days before the House was expected to consider legislation providing subsidies and tax credits worth over $70 billion to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Paul Pelosi sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia for about $4.1 million, suffering a loss of $341,365, according to financial reports.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Susan Heavey in WashingtonEditing by Kanishka Singh and Matthew Lewis)
