Rep. Rob Bresnahan said he would ban stock trading when he got to Congress. Since the Pennsylvania Republican took office in January, he’s traded securities at least 530 times.
Forty of those trades, worth at least $166,000, were made after May 6, when he announced that he would move his assets into a blind trust.
Business Insider reviewed 11 periodic transaction reports that Bresnahan has filed since January. His investments run the gamut, from tech companies like Meta and Alphabet to energy companies like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
Like fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Bresnahan has said that he does not make those trades himself and that his portfolio is managed by an outside third party.
Bresnahan has apparently continued to allow that advisor to make trades on his behalf, even after his trades began to draw significant media scrutiny two months ago.
“As we’ve said repeatedly, Rob has no involvement in the stock trades made by his financial advisor,” Hannah Pope, a spokeswoman for Bresnahan, told BI. “He’s in the process of finalizing a blind trust which requires sign-off from the House Ethics Committee.”
In March 2021, Bresnahan penned an op-ed in a local paper stating that if elected, he would co-sponsor legislation to ban stock trading in Congress.
“Some of the most prolific traders in the country serve in Congress,” Bresnahan wrote. “Whether or not they have done something wrong, the idea that we can buy and sell stocks while voting on legislation that will have a direct impact on these companies is wrong and needs to come to an end immediately.”
The Pennsylvania Republican has emerged as one of the House’s most prolific traders. After the New York Times first reported on Bresnahan’s trades, his office said he would introduce his own bill instead.
One month later, he did, introducing the “TRUST Act,” a name that sounded similar to an existing stock ban bill, the TRUST in Congress Act.
“I think his staff should learn how to Google,” Rep. Chip Roy, the GOP cosponsor of that bill, told NOTUS.
At the same time, Bresnahan said he would establish a blind trust.
“I have never traded my own stocks, but I want to guarantee accountability to my constituents,” the congressman said in a May 6 press release. “That is why I am working with House Ethics to begin the process of enacting a blind trust. I want the people I represent to trust that I am in Congress to serve them, and them alone.”
While the details of each blind trust is different, they generally allow individuals to retain the value of their assets, but they relinquish control over investment decisions to a third party. They also do not receive information about the contents of the trust until it is terminated.
Bresnahan isn’t the only lawmaker who continues to trade stocks despite backing a stock trading ban. He’s also not the only lawmaker who has continued to trade despite announcing plans for a blind trust.
In February 2022, Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey announced that he would set up a blind trust. Three years later, that still hasn’t happened, and spokesman Tony Wen told BI on Monday that the congressman is still “awaiting approval” from the relevant ethics officials in Congress.
“In the meantime, he has taken the extra step of setting up an independent trust,” Wen said.
Additionally, Republican Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey announced just before he took office in January 2023 that he would be placing his assets into a blind trust. The congressman still has not disclosed doing so, and his office did not respond to a request for comment.
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