Has hell frozen over?
Or are pigs officially flying?
Whatever the case, liberal congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pulled off a move so stunning, even her biggest critics are applauding her.
AOC took to X (formally Twitter) late last week to advocate that her fellow lawmakers should be disclosing their recent stock market purchases.
“Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now. I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now.
I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor.
Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things.
It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress. https://t.co/YBKMGbraAu
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 10, 2025
Her request comes during a time of extreme market volatility and an up-and-down week on Wall Street in the aftermath of the on-again, off-again tariff battle.
AOC has consistently railed against members of Congress trading stocks.
“I think sometimes what my colleagues and other people in the party don’t understand, is that the insider trading that happens in Congress — it explodes the cynicism that fuels the right. It doesn’t benefit us. It benefits Republicans because they make no bones about what class they are here to serve,” she said during her February appearance on “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart.”
“In fact, Republicans are far more honest in this respect sometimes, which is that they’re here to serve the billionaire class, and they make decisions very publicly to serve that billionaire class,” she told the host.
Lawmakers can trade stocks legally, but there are disclosure laws they are expected to follow to combat conflicts of interest. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, signed in 2012, requires members of Congress to disclose their stock trades within 45 days.
Ocasio-Cortez was also a co-sponsor of the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, a piece of bipartisan legislation introduced in 2023 that would bar members from trading and owning individual stocks.
While AOC’s comments did come with a perpetual dig at her Republican rivals, it comes as more and more are calling for more eyeballs to be on the finances of Democratic lawmakers and their accumulated wealth.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk suggested that his team at DOGE will investigate how certain members of Congress have achieved generational wealth despite fairly modest salaries.
Rank-and-file members of Congress make $174,000 annually. Last year, Musk — whose net worth is pegged at $330 billion by Bloomberg — helped kill legislation to raise congressional pay, then later supported an increase as a means of fighting corruption.
Included in that list of wealthy lawmakers includes former House Speaker and fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who has a net worth of about $250 million.
Pelosi’s wealth largely comes from her and her venture capitalist husband Paul’s lucrative investments in companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Netflix.
“How do they get $20 million if they’re earning $200,000 a year?” Musk further pondered.
“We’re going to try to figure it out and certainly stop it from happening.”
Hate her or love her, AOC does make an intriguing point.