Congressman Sheila Cherilus-McCormick recently resigned after being found guilty on 25 ethics violations after a House Ethics Committee hearing. It’s the latest reminder of elected officials found to be using their public positions for personal gain. Another layer to the outrage: members of Congress quietly posting fantastical returns in the stock market — while many Americans struggle just to cover groceries and gas. Today we look at why this longstanding scandal is as hot as ever and whether real reform is on the horizon.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is accused of stealing and laundering $5 million in federal Covid and emergency relief funds. She pleaded not guilty. She was already found guilty in an Ethics Committee probe and resigned from Congress.

The last Ethics Committee trial for a sitting member of Congress was in 2010.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (Nov. 15, 2010): I truly believe that I’m not being treated fairly.

Democrat Charlie Rangel was found guilty of improper solicitation of funds and multiple tax violations — while he headed up the tax committee. That netted him a relatively mild censure.

Public frustration over lawmakers enriching themselves on the public dime extends to the stock market where some are collecting staggering returns. Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette is with the nonprofit watchdog Project on Government Oversight.

Sharyl: What’s the top line of what’s been learned over the years—What’s so wrong?

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette: There’s recent analysis that has been released by the National Bureau of Economic Research that has shown that when members of Congress get into congressional leadership, they magically begin to outperform even their peers, who they used to be kind of on par with in terms of how they performed in the stock market. But once they become leaders in Congress, they end up outperforming by quite a bit. And so there is kind of some smoke there and I think there’s probably some fire there as well.

Examples of the most gifted investors in Congress include:

Now-retired Republican Richard Burr. Just after receiving classified briefings on the emerging Covid pandemic. Burr and his wife sold stocks in companies expected to be hit hard. The market crashed the next week and Burr reportedly netted a $164,000 advantage for selling early. After Republican Kelly Loeffler got a classified Covid briefing, she and her husband also sold stocks, avoiding millions in losses. Both Burr and Loeffler were cleared of any wrongdoing. But the biggest talent when it comes to growing profits in the stock market is Democrat Nancy Pelosi. She and her husband boasted a 16,930% return over her nearly four decades in Congress. In 1987, their stocks were worth no more than to $785,000. Today, they’re estimated at upwards of $130 million dollars.

Republican Zach Nunn is widely considered the most vocal supporter of a total ban on individual stock ownership for members of Congress. He sold all of his stock before being sworn into office in 2023.

Sharyl: What would you say for people not following the controversy over stock purchases?

Rep. Zach Nunn: I’ll give you 200 million reasons why there’s a problem here. We have multiple members of Congress who are performing 40% better than the S&P. It is unfair for Americans to see members go off to Washington and make more money than hedge funds are doing in New York. This is the definition of insider trading. When we have folks who are earning well above the norm, it’s a direct reflection of the fact that they’re involved in energy, technology, and financial services. Something Congress should oversee, not get rich from.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average track America’s biggest and strongest companies. Very few investors consistently do better. That’s what’s so striking about so many members of Congress outperforming them, frequently investing in companies they’re making decisions about.

Sharyl: How has this ever been legal? It seems so obvious that members of Congress should not be making policy decisions on companies that they’re invested in.

Hedtler-Gaudette: It does seem obvious, and unfortunately, some of the worst kind of corruption in Washington is actually the legal kind of corruption. The laws, the laws and the rules and the regulations have not kept up with the pace of the economy and with the sophistication of how industry does a really good job of influencing Congress, of influencing agencies.

For two decades, it’s been a hot-button issue that’s gained bipartisan support.

President Barack Obama (Jan. 24, 2012): Send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress; I will sign it tomorrow.

Soon after, on April 4, 2012, President Obama signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act—the STOCK Act.

It seemed a simple fix. No member of Congress, their staff, or even the president can trade stocks based on non-public information they got on the job. And every trade has to be publicly disclosed within 45 days.

No more Congressional “insider trading”—or so we thought. Yet members of Congress have continued crushing the market—beating the S&P 500 by double digits year after year.

Hedtler-Gaudette: We basically ran a 10, 12 year kind of pilot program with the STOCK Act being how we try to regulate this and it doesn’t work. And they also very routinely violate the pretty meager reporting requirements under the STOCK Act because they don’t face any real penalty for doing so.

The penalty for violating the STOCK Act? Just $200. In 2025, 40 members of Congress reported more than 1,200 transactions past the 45 day deadline.

Democrat Val Hoyle missed deadlines for 217 transactions. The biggest batch of tardy disclosures was filed by: Republican Lisa McClain. She dropped hundreds at once, post-deadline. The latest filer: Republican Markwayne Mullin. Then a U.S. Senator, now Homeland Security Chief, he reported trades up to more than two and a half years late. And as far as conflict of interest questions over 50 members of Congress made a total of 2,000 trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies affected by Trump’s tariff policies.

Republican Chip Roy is leading the charge for the Restore Trust in Congress Act. It would force members to get rid of individual stocks within 6 months of taking office.

Sharyl: According to research from your offices and others, 46 members of Congress had trades that outperformed the S&P 500 last year. 14 of those more than doubled the baseline. And per the New York Times, 3,700 trades by members of Congress in a two year period posed a potential conflict of interest regarding the committees people are sitting on. Can you explain why the STOCK Act didn’t solve this problem?

Rep. Chip Roy: Well, the STOCK Act illuminated the problem. That’s really the issue, right? So now we have data because of all of the transparency that the STOCK Act required. And so now you can go look and see what members are doing. The key issue isn’t really the insider trading. That’s what people say all the time. “So you, you must know all this information you can,” and maybe that’s true, but really for me, it’s the lack of trust the American people have that we’re making good decisions for them. Because how can you make a good decision on defense policy if you have major positions in defense stocks? If you have a major position in Google, are you gonna break up Google? Are you gonna not break up Google? I don’t know what the right policy is on breaking up Google, but it shouldn’t be based on whether or not you think you’ve got a personal stake in it.

The Restore Trust in Congress Act has more than 100 co-sponsors, including Democrat Seth Magaziner.

Rep. Seth Magaziner: There are two problems here. One is the problem of insider trading and members of Congress having advanced knowledge of information that could be market moving and profiting off of that inside information, that is a problem that we need to solve. The second problem is when we as members of Congress are deciding how to vote on a bill, we should be voting based on what we think is the best thing for the American people, not as, not what is the best thing for our investment accounts. And, you know, how can a member of Congress make an impartial decision when they know, oh, I own so many shares of Apple, or I own so many shares of Pfizer, or whatever it may be?

So now, it’s déjà vu all over again. President Trump recently echoed Obama’s call at his own State of the Union address in February.

President Donald Trump (February 24): As we ensure that all Americans can profit from a rising stock market, let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.

But there’s a divide over a total ban or something less restrictive President Trump favors.

The Stop Insider Trading Act bans new stock purchases by members and their families, but lets them keep what they already have.

Last year, top House Republican Mike Johnson said he supported a total ban. But now he’s with President Trump in saying let members keep what they have— but restrict new trades.

Speaker Mike Johnson (May 14, 2025): At least let them engage in some stock trading so that they can continue to take care of their family.

Rep. Magaziner: We understand too, that members of Congress need to be able to save for their retirement or their kids’ college education like anyone else, but they can do that through a mutual fund. They don’t have to do it by day trading individual stocks. And so it’s tough, it’s enforceable, it’s achievable, and there are no excuses left. We need to do this, we need to get it done.

Meanwhile, Congressional portfolios continue to raise eyebrows. In 2025, dozens of lawmakers managed to best the S&P 500—some by more than 50%. Polling shows 85% of Americans want a full ban on congressional stock trading.

Rep. Roy: There are 300 you know, 30 million people in this country, only 535 of us are entrusted with leading the People’s house in the Senate. And so pause your day trading for four years or six years, or 10 or 12 years. But these guys come up here for 30 or 40 years and they go, “well, I, I can’t not trade stocks.” Come up here for a few years and then go back home and then start trading stocks again.

Sharyl (on-camera): A spokesman for Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t answer our question for this report but issued a brief comment saying she doesn’t own any stock. A spokesman for now-Homeland Security Secretary Mullin told us his financial disclosures were “amended to reflect the most accurate, up-to-date information” and that Mullin now uses a “third-party operator firm that manages all stock portfolio investments on his behalf. He does not conduct nor inform trades.”

Watch the video here.