January 26, 2022: -House Republican leaders have discussed ways they can campaign in midterm congressional elections on the issue of limiting lawmakers’ stock trading, an attempt seizing on one of the hot-button issues in Washington.

According to people briefed on the subject, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and different top GOP members of the House discussed the matter with donors in the previous weekend in Miami.

McCarthy and different leaders told donors that they would aim to pass legislation that can limit lawmakers’ ability to trade stocks, the people said. If they win back the House in the midterm elections this fall, Republicans will bring the legislation to the House floor at the start of the new Congress, said a person familiar with the matter.

At a different round of meetings that started on Monday in Miami, GOP leaders aimed to discuss campaigning on the issue and potential legislation, people known with the matter said.

The push for regulation on lawmakers’ stock trades has become a bipartisan issue in Congress. Critics point out that senators and representatives often have access to potentially market-moving information as the public does.

Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, and Mark Kelly, of Arizona, introduced the “Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act,” which can ban members of Congress to buy and sell the stocks while they are in office. If passed, it would require members of Congress and their families to put their stock portfolios into a blind trust. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced the same type of bill. Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, also work together on potential limits.

Both parties’ lawyers came under scrutiny for transactions during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, which include Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but authorities did not charge him. Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, heading the New York Stock Exchange, liquidated their stock share positions and related options after weeks of criticism of the couple, which sells millions of dollars in stock amid the coronavirus pandemic.

McCarthy told Punchbowl News that he would consider pushing ahead with new limits or an outright ban on lawmakers dealing assets if the GOP retakes the majority this year. McCarthy is all but sure to become speaker of the House if Republicans win the chamber in the midterms.