Anna Paulina Luna turns to petition process to force vote on stock trading ban

U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna will pursue a ban on stock trading by sitting lawmakers through a discharge petition.

That means she will rally colleagues from both sides of the aisle to force the measure to the House floor despite the objections of leadership.

“We have decided, because of a lack of movement in the House of Representatives, to initiate the discharge petition on banning insider trading, meaning it is live now,” Luna said in a video posted on social media shortly after filing the petition. “Now if leadership wants to put forward a bill that would actually do that and end the corruption, we’re all for it. But we’re tired of the partisan games.”

If a majority of House members signs the petition, it will allow Luna to bring a measure (HR 1908) filed by U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, to the floor for a vote by the full membership of the House. Burchett appeared in the video with Luna and has already signed the petition. He filed the bill in March but it was referred to a subcommittee and has not been heard since.

“This place is broken,” Burchett said. “It is a complete open sewer.”

Luna has lamented for months that leadership won’t take up the bill despite bipartisan support. She has appeared in press conferences alongside Democrats including U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, who filed a similar bill with U.S. Reps. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican in the Freedom Caucus, and Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat and former Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

But Speaker Mike Johnson has blocked the legislation from coming to the vote, and has spoken strongly against the use of discharge petitions to circumvent leadership. While he has expressed support for a ban on stock trades, he said some members have raised concern that congressional raises haven’t changed since 2009.

Johnson considered changing the discharge petition process after it was used to force a vote on the release of documents tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, according to Axios. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise at the time also told the outlet the process may need to change. “I’d like to see a higher threshold for a lot of these motions. You know, privileged motions, discharge petitions,” he said.

The discharge process, long allowed in House rules, has seen more success recently. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, a Sarasota Republican, last year successfully forced a House vote on his bill providing tax relief to disaster victims. That legislation, which was signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, had gone without a vote for years despite leadership in the House and Senate ultimately supporting it.

Notably, Steube came out immediately on Thursday in support of Luna’s petition.

“Count me in. It’s no secret that House leadership is refusing to do anything about congressional insider trading,” Steube said. “Lawmakers have no business making bank off their access to privileged information. If the Speaker and Majority Leader won’t step up and do the right thing, we will.”

Luna, who was a vocal supporter of the Epstein release petition, also tried to use the discharge process to force a vote allowing new parents in Congress to vote on legislation by proxy during a short leave. Despite that petition garnering enough signatures to reach the floor, Luna reached an agreement with Johnson to not bring the matter for a vote.