In yet another attempt to bypass House Republican leadership, a discharge petition was filed on Tuesday to force a vote on a bill from Tennessee GOP Rep. Tim Burchett to prohibit stock trading for members of Congress and their immediate family members.
The petition was filed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who had warned that she would do so if the House leaders failed to act, according to The Hill.
“We have decided that because of a lack of movement from the House of Representatives to initiate the discharge petition on banning insider trading,” Luna said in a video posted to social media. “If leadership wants to put forward a bill that would actually do that and end the corruption, we’re all for it.”
After Luna and Burchett signed on to the discharge petition, Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., announced their intentions to sign on.
If a discharge petition is signed by 218 members of Congress, House leaders are required to bring the bill to a vote, bypassing committees and other procedural tactics that can stall a bill. When a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill that required the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files gained the required votes last month, it went on to pass in the House by a vote of 427-1, and was signed by President Donald Trump.
House leadership could attempt to “turn off” the discharge petition with a majority vote in the House, but that is unlikely in this case, as there appears to be broad bipartisan support for prohibiting members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks while in Congress.