U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan said House ethics rules have so far thwarted his try at putting his stocks and other investments into a blind trust that will block him from controlling or knowing about trades.
Bresnahan, who as a candidate last year called for banning members of Congress from trading stocks, has faced sharp criticism from a Democratic political action committee for continuing to trade stocks as a congressman.
He has repeatedly said he has had nothing to do with any stock trades carried out by his financial advisers since he became a congressman Jan. 3.
Theoretically, Bresnahan could order his financial advisers to stop trading his stocks, but he does not plan to do that.
“And then do what with it?” he asked in an interview with WVIA News this week. “Just leave it all in the accounts and just leave it there and lose money and go broke?”
Instead, he wants to form a blind trust, but Bresnahan told WVIA that U.S. House ethics rules on the trusts have prevented his creating one for now.
“The ethics process is prehistoric and it's downright excruciating,” Bresnahan said. “And it's been a long process that really leaves people that existed in the real world and came from different careers in a bind when you want to provide a life of public service.”
What's a blind trust?
In a blind trust, a person who owns stocks, investment accounts or other assets allows a trustee to manage investments. Communication between the investments’ owner and trustee about the investments is forbidden.
Before President Donald Trump upended the practice, presidents regularly established blind trusts so they would not be accused of conflicts of interest when taking official actions.
House rules allow members to use blind trusts, but members cannot instruct a trustee in any way on how to invest. A blind trust also means a member of Congress no longer has to publicly disclose stock trades.
No China investment
Bresnahan wants to instruct his trustee to avoid investments in foreign adversaries such as China and to avoid “short sells” on American-owned companies.
Selling short means investing to make money when a stock starts failing, the equivalent of betting against a company’s success.
He outlined that strategy in a July 17 letter to the Ethics Committee that he released this week.
He also wants to be able to use his existing financial advisers, but the House Ethics Committee won’t allow any instructions, he said.
“So, you would have to then find someone else that would even consider taking you to manage through a trustee account,” he said. “So, it became a disaster.”
What's next?
For now, he plans to continue following current federal law requiring disclosure of stock trades and providing “absolutely no investment advice or input to my financial advisors” or won’t trade stocks on his own, he said.
“There’s a lot of conversations happening in Washington (on future disclosure rules),” he said. “I will continue to follow the law as written. Our compliance team and staff have been in constant communication with the House Ethics Committee about avenues to pursue and will continue to do so as these discussions happen.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee renewed its criticism of Bresnahan’s stance on stock trades Wednesday, calling it “a broken promise” to voters.
“Rob Bresnahan has violated the public trust by campaigning on a pledge to clean up Washington, only to become the poster-child of the swamp,” committee spokesman Eli Cousin said.
How it all started
In April, the New York Times reported that Bresnahan turned into one of Congress’ most frequent stock traders since taking office, despite calling for the ban in a March 29, 2024, letter to the editor to The Citizens' Voice newspaper in Wilkes-Barre.
“Some of the most prolific traders in the country serve in Congress,” Bresnahan wrote as a candidate. “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. This is the topic of bipartisan legislation right now in the House that I would happily co-sponsor.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helps the party’s House candidates, accused Bresnahan of “saying one thing on the campaign trail, but ... now doing another thing in Washington.”
In May, a month after the New York Times story, Bresnahan introduced a bill that would ban stock trades by members of Congress or their spouses unless the trades are done within a blind trust. The bill has gone nowhere as longer-tenured House members push an alternative.
Congressman feels torn
Bresnahan said he feels “pinned between a rock and a hard place.”
“I tried to put it into a qualified blind trust,” he said. “And I say (to the House Ethics Committee) ‘I can't invest in foreign adversaries and, you know, fund our, biggest global competitor, China,’ and I'm not allowed to (say) that.”
Congressmen must file forms disclosing their stocks and other financial assets by May 15 each year. Bresnahan asked for and was granted a 90-day extension, which means he has until Aug. 15 to file the 2024 form.
As a candidate last year, he filed a form that covers Jan. 1, 2023, through July 14, 2024. That form showed Bresnahan had assets ranging from about $18.8 million to almost $77 million and income during that period of between about $1.7 million and $8.4 million.
The Medicaid stock sale
Bresnahan also addressed the sale of a stock that made up a tiny part of his investment portfolio but became controversial when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and podcaster Joe Rogan tried to tie the sale to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
On May 15, according to a disclosure form, Bresnahan sold between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of Centene Corp. stock. Centene bills itself as the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the country. At the time, the stock represented less than one one-hundredth of 1 percent of the value of Bresnahan’s investments.
A week later, the congressman voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which critics say will sharply reduce Medicaid spending over the next decade.
Almost seven weeks later, on July 2, Centene’s stock price dropped 40.4% because the company predicted lower-than-expected revenues from its Affordable Care Act health insurance plans, not because of Medicaid cuts, which don’t take effect until 2029.
If Bresnahan had held onto the stock, he would have lost between $404 and $6,060 the day it dropped 40.4%, or an even tinier fraction of all his investments.
The Senate had not voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by the day Centene stock plummeted, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee roasted Bresnahan for the sale in a July 3 email blast.
Bresnahan said he didn’t order the Centene sale because he doesn’t tell his brokers how to invest, never heard of Centene and noted the sale’s small value.
“I had to look up last Thursday to figure out what Centene actually did,” he said.
Still favors stock trade disclosure
Bresnahan said he remains in favor of disclosing stock trades and denying congressmen the ability to trade based on “sensitive information” related to pending legislation.
He agrees he shouldn’t be “trading stocks if I come out of a committee hearing and realize I have information.”
“I stand by that any day of the week,” he said. “(With a) qualified blind trust I would literally ... have zero insight. I would have no idea. (Publicly available period transaction reports) reports would not be generated, and none of us would have any idea what they (the trustees) were doing or their investment strategy, whether they did exactly what they are currently doing, or if they were changing investment philosophy or strategy. None of us would have any clue what's happening.”
