For decades, Americans have watched in bewilderment as their elected representatives enter Congress with modest means and emerge as multimillionaires. The math is laughable: how does someone earning a government salary of $174,000 annually accumulate wealth that would make Wall Street executives envious? This question strikes at the heart of public trust in our institutions.
The numbers don’t lie. Even with generous benefits and careful saving, the trajectory from middle-class public servant to centimillionaire defies financial logic. Yet somehow, year after year, congressional wealth reports surface that would require either supernatural investment skills or something far more troubling: access to information the rest of us don’t have. Regular investors play by the rules. Politicians, apparently, play by their own.
Lawmakers on Thursday called for the passage of the PELOSI Act to ban congressional stock trading in honor of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) retirement. “She’ll be the opportunity to finally ban stock trading by members of Congress. Nobody made more, I think, than her,” Senator Josh Hawley told reporters. Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) added, “In honor of @SpeakerPelosi and her service to the Nation, @SpeakerJohnson should immediately call for a vote on the PELOSI Act… I can’t think of a better tribute than to pass this legislation named in her honor.”
The timing of this “tribute” is strikingly ironic. As Pelosi announces her retirement after decades in Congress, lawmakers from both parties are seizing the moment to push through legislation that would ban the very practices that made her a symbol of congressional excess. The PELOSI Act—Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments—represents more than clever acronym work. It’s a direct challenge to the culture of legal insider trading that has infected our capital for far too long.
Hawley, who reintroduced the legislation earlier this year, didn’t mince words about why Pelosi’s name graces this particular bill. “Nobody made more, I think, than her,” he told reporters Thursday, capturing the frustration millions of voters feel watching their officials play the market with uncanny—and suspicious—success.
The numbers tell a story that demands explanation. Nancy Pelosi, with an annual salary between $174,000 and $223,000, has amassed an estimated net worth of $240 million. President Trump noted in August that Pelosi and her husband Paul “beat every Hedge Fund in 2024.” These aren’t the returns of lucky amateurs or even skilled day traders—they’re the kind of results that professional investors with armies of analysts struggle to achieve.
“You don’t do it legally,” Hawley stated bluntly during an interview in May. The senator pointed out what should be obvious: either Pelosi possesses financial genius that surpasses thousands of Wall Street’s brightest minds, or “maybe the information that she’s privy to turns out to be pretty darn valuable.”
The PELOSI Act would ban not just members of Congress but also their spouses from trading individual stocks—closing a loophole that has allowed politicians to claim ignorance while their families mysteriously time the market with surgical precision. This isn’t about preventing public servants from building wealth through mutual funds or blind trusts. It’s about ending the practice of using committee knowledge and classified briefings as personal investment strategies.
“Members of Congress should be fighting for the people they were elected to serve—not day trading at the expense of their constituents,” Hawley said when reintroducing the legislation in April. The sentiment resonates across party lines. Citizens are united in their disgust at watching lawmakers profit from the very crises they’re supposed to be solving.
This reform represents something larger than partisan politics. It’s about restoring faith in the fundamental promise of representative democracy: that those we elect will serve the public interest, not their portfolio performance. Rules for thee, not for me? Not anymore.
As Pelosi prepares to leave Congress, her legacy may ultimately be defined not by her historic speakership but by the reform movement her wealth accumulation inspired. If the PELOSI Act passes, it will serve as a permanent reminder that the era of congressional insider trading must end. Perhaps, finally, we’ll ensure that nobody gets crookedly rich like Pelosi again. The American people deserve lawmakers who come to Washington to serve, not to build stock portfolios that would make hedge fund managers weep with envy.
