Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It’s well known that the very wealthy have gotten much richer in recent years, expanding the wealth gap to record highs.

Members of Congress, whatever their initial wealth level when coming into office, have fared much better than most in getting wealthier.

Ballotpedia tracks how much each member of Congress’ wealth has changed while they are in office. Their latest report shows the average increase in net worth for the top 100 in Congress was 114% per year. For the top 20 it is a whopping 422% a year.

That’s one reason to look critically at how members of Congress work the stock market while in office. A proposal gaining traction and drawing support from both parties would bar members and family members from buying or selling stock.

A decade ago Congress passed the STOCK Act which requires members and their spouses to disclose when they buy or sell stock. But members routinely fall short on reporting or report them long after they are required to.

The idea of barring members from buying and selling stock has drawn more interest after reports that several members — during the earliest days of the pandemic — reaped big profits in the market after they were given classified briefings about how serious COVID was going to become and what business sectors were likely to be hammered by the pandemic and which would benefit.

Several members quickly sold hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars worth of stock they held in hotels and other industries they knew would be pummeled. They also bought stock in tech and other companies that were likely to gain from the pandemic.

Bills introduced in the House and Senate would ban trading for lawmakers; others extend the ban to spouses and other family members. Including spouses makes sense, as any privileged stock-related information members get is likely to be passed on to spouses.

The legislation deserves support from both parties. Holding any elected office is supposed to be a public service, not a free pass for making more money with information the public doesn’t have access to.

— Mankato Free Press, Jan. 25