It’s a day that ends in the letter “y,” which means that Rob Bresnahan is making headlines for his broken promise to ban stock trading in Congress.
Bresnahan is the face of new Wall Street Journal reporting that details how he “hated the idea of lawmakers making money by trading individual stocks in elected office” when he was a candidate, but now “is one of the most active traders in Congress and is drawing political heat for some of the transactions.”
Read key details for yourself:
- While running for Congress last year, Republican Rob Bresnahan—like most Americans—hated the idea of lawmakers making money by trading individual stocks in elected office and said he wanted to ban the practice.
- Then he won his race.
- Now a congressman representing northeastern Pennsylvania, Bresnahan is one of the most active traders in Congress and is drawing political heat for some of the transactions […]
- He recently suggested he wouldn’t follow through on his plan to put his investment portfolio in a blind trust as an ethical firewall.
- He hasn’t signed on to a leading House effort to restrict stock trading, instead introducing his own bill that ethics advocates and colleagues have said is weak.
- When asked during a Scranton-area radio interview if he planned to tell his adviser to stop trading stocks to avoid backlash, he replied: “And then do what with it? Just leave it all in accounts and just leave it there and lose money and go broke?”
- Bresnahan, 35 years old, ran his family’s highway and industrial electrical business before winning his seat. He was one of only four Republicans to topple a House Democrat, winning by less than 2 percentage points. Since taking office in January, Bresnahan has made more than 600 individual stock trades, according to an analysis of financial-disclosure reports as of Aug. 21.
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