- Elizabeth Warren is calling for state lawmakers to be banned from trading individual stocks.
- This ban could also be applied to other elected officials and judges, she said.
- Federal lawmakers have already introduced several bills to ban stock trading on Capitol Hill.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to ban all state lawmakers and elected officials from trading individual stocks as more momentum grows on Capitol Hill to pass a similar measure for members of Congress.
"Public officials should remove all conflicts of interest — whether you're at the federal or the state level," Warren told Insider.
"It's also true whether we're talking about elected officials or sitting judges, or members of the Federal Reserve," Warren said. "The public has a right to know that when people in power make decisions, that they're doing it to advance the best interest of the public, not to advance their own personal financial interests."
Warren is one of Capitol Hill's top advocates for legislation that would ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks. Her remarks come weeks after Insider published its "Conflicted Congress" investigation that found that 57 lawmakers and at least 182 senior-level congressional staffers have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act by failing to disclose their own stock transactions in a certain time period.
The investigation has prompted both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to introduce several bills that call for stronger congressional ethics reforms and prohibit lawmakers from trading individual stocks. Some proposed bans would apply to members of Congress' spouses, as well.
But some agree with Warren that such a stock-trade ban should go further.
Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke told Insider that if elected, he would try to work with state legislatures to pass a measure to ban stock trading among state lawmakers.
"I think you have both the real opportunity for conflict of interest and the appearance of conflict of interest, and we don't need any more cause for cynicism in our politics or in our democracy right now, and so I think that's the right thing to do," O'Rourke, a Democrat, told Insider. "At the state level, I'd love to work with members of the legislature of both parties to make sure that we get that done."
Congressional leadership has directed lawmakers to work on stock ban bills, although they've not scheduled a date to vote on any of the legislative measures that have been introduced on banning stock trading. Some congressional ethics reform experts told Insider that lawmakers, who are opposed to posing limits on stock trading for members of Congress, may try to water down the bill so that, in their estimation, no meaningful change happens.
Madison Hall contributed to this story.