The 118th Congress could decide to take an initiative to ban members of Congress investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies after a change of leadership in the United States Congress.
This initiative has gained the support of a significant number American lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
January 3rd 2017 will be the start of the next session in the United States Congress. Due to the victory of Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections, the House of Representatives will be dominated by Republicans, while the Senate will remain dominated by Democrats.
In January 2022, it was reported that Kevin McCarthy (a Republican representative) said he would be open to considering a ban on legislators trading and holding stocks in the event his party wins control of the chamber. This could be extended to crypto.
Many people, however, have pointed out that the fact that elected officials can trade and keep certain assets while they are in office is a source of conflict.
Reports state that 77 members of Congress broke the disclosure requirements of Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (also known by the STOCK Act), during the 117th session. This Act was approved for the first time in 2012.
The members were still allowed to act on legislation on subjects that might have been affected their personal interests, even though these infractions included delayed reporting legal transactions.
Cynthia Lummis, a senator pro-crypto, is a member of the Senate Banking Committee. She revealed her interest in bitcoin by joining the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Senator Pat Toomey is the Senate Banking Committee’s ranking member. He has previously reported buying Ether and BTC. However, he will soon be retiring from the Senate in 2023. In 2022, major controversy in the cryptocurrency space was centered around financial ties between US lawmakers and industry leaders.
While the Federal Open Market Committee passed similar restrictions to prohibit top Federal Reserve officials from holding or retaining cryptocurrency, the planned amendment to the policy was not made.
