Sewell among top performers in Congress as stock trading bills gain traction

WASHINGTON — As efforts to ban stock trading by members of Congress ramp up this year, one Alabama lawmaker, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, ranked as one of the top portfolio performers in Congress in 2025.

Three members of Alabama’s nine-person congressional delegation, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Reps. Sewell and Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, traded stocks last year, according to Unusual Whales, a site that tracks members of Congress’ stock trades.

All Alabama members except for Reps. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, and Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, own stock, according to the Campaign Legal Center.

Out of all the lawmakers in Congress who own stocks, Sewell ranked third in portfolio performance, generating a 67.9% return on investment in 2025, according to an Unusual Whales yearly report. She purchased just two stocks last year, Apple and Nvidia, each worth up to $15,000, but both performed well.

At the same time, the Alabama Democrat is also a vocal proponent for enacting reform around stock trading by members of Congress. Sewell sits on the House Administration Committee, which handles legislation dealing with the practice.

A spokesperson for Sewell, Christopher Kosteva, said she “takes extremely seriously her role as a steward of the public trust.” He added that the congresswoman will continue to comply with federal laws and remain a “staunch advocate against insider trading by public officials.”

But Kedric Payne, the senior director of ethics at Campaign Legal Center, said lawmakers’ pushing reform while also benefiting from stock holdings, “shows that even people who have these financial interests recognize that there is a potential perception problem with them having that stock portfolio.”

On Wednesday, the Administration Committee passed a watered-down bill, dubbed the Stop Insider Trading Act, that would place limits on stocks for lawmakers, but would not outright ban members from owning them. It passed on party lines, with Sewell and Democrats opposed.

The Republican-led bill would prohibit lawmakers from buying individual stocks, but members of Congress would still be allowed to sell their existing holdings if they provide seven to 14 day notice.

“​​This legislation ensures that no member can profit off insider information,” Rep. Bryan Steil, R-WI, the bill’s sponsor, said during the markup. “And, it still allows individuals who’ve had successful careers in the private sector to come to Congress.”

But Democrats argue that the Stop Insider Trading Act is not the right fix.

“When elected officials are allowed to trade individual stocks, even legally, it creates the appearance and sometimes the reality of an insider advantage,” Sewell said. “While this legislation is a strong step forward, it does not yet go far enough to fully eliminate (the) insider trading risk or restore public trust.”

The congresswoman supports the Democratic-led Restore Trust in Government Act, which would ban members from owning stock and add the president and vice president to the list of officials subject to the restrictions. She also attempted to add an amendment to the Stop Insider Trading Act, adding the president and vice president to the bill, but it was rejected in the committee on party lines.

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“The president has an unprecedented ability to influence (the) United States’ economy and the world economy,” Sewell said.

But Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, said adding the executive branch to stock trading legislation would “kill the momentum.”

“The effort to attach that to a congressional stock trading bill basically creates a bill that becomes (unwieldly) and too big to pass,” he told Alabama Daily News.

Also on the table is a bipartisan bill in the House, dubbed the Restore Trust in Congress Act, that would ban stock trading by members of Congress but wouldn’t apply to the president and vice president. A similar bill has also been introduced in the Senate by bipartisan senators.

Stock trading by members of Congress has raised concerns and questions over the years, as lawmakers have access to information from their work on committees and can conduct oversight on industries, unlike the public.

“They have all these advantages that they’re able to use for their own gain and or the gain of their own personal portfolios and that’s a fundamental unfairness,” Hedtler-Gaudette told ADN.

Tuberville is one of Congress’ most prolific traders with a total trade volume of up to $38.14 million, according to Quiver Quantitative, a website that tracks members of Congress’ holdings. In December of last year, Tuberville sold his shares in Apple and Google. He purchased three sector-specific exchange-traded funds, each valued between $15,001 to $50,000.

“I put all my money with financial people, and I think that’s what you should do up here,” Tuberville told reporters on a call. “I don’t think you stop people from investing in our country. I think you stop people from individually doing it.”

But Tuberville does not have his investments in a blind trust, according to the Campaign Legal Center. So, he’s still able to know what he owns, which can create a conflict of interest, Payne said.

Tuberville also claimed that he’s “never seen anything..(or) read or gotten in any kind of hearing that would help me make money on stock.” But over the years, some of his trades have attracted attention for “recurring potential conflicts,” as the New York Times reported in 2022.

After Sewell, Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, ranked second out of Alabama’s delegation for portfolio performance, generating a 22.6% return on investment. But he did not actively trade stocks in 2025.

This story is from aldailynews.com.