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Rebecca Zisser is a reporter for Business Insider.
An Insider analysis of federal financial records shows that dozens of Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have invested in companies that have a stake in the nation's response to the COVID-19 epidemic.
More than 15 million Americans have received the single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, and at least 13 senators and 35 US representatives held shares of Johnson & Johnson in 2020.
The senators and representatives held shares in Pfizer in 2020. Two representatives or their spouses held shares of Moderna in the same year that the world went on lock down in response to the Pandemic.
Lawmakers held these investments in companies that were interested in COVID-19. Six relief bills were voted on by members of Congress. More than $10 billion was authorized by Congress to help drug companies develop and distribute vaccines, and to make health insurers cover the cost of getting the shot.
Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna spent a lot of money lobbying the federal government to get the coronaviruses vaccine approved.
Insider reviewed nearly 9000 financial-disclosure reports for every sitting lawmaker and their top-ranking staffers, as part of the Conflicted Congress project.
The family's finances are managed by the spouse of Rep. Marie Newman.
The US House of Representatives.
Lawmakers invest in big stocks.
Jim Newman, the husband of freshman Rep. Marie Newman, has traded shares of both Johnson & Johnson and Moderna. The congresswoman's personal financial disclosure listed the couple holding shares in Moderna.
Insider was told by Marie Newman's office that the accounts were for retirement, college savings for their children, and assistance for family healthcare costs. Mary Newman entered Congress after it passed all but one federal relief bill. After she was sworn in, her husband continued trading.
The only other lawmaker who held Moderna stock was Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat of New Jersey. He sold up to $15,000 of his shares in May 2020.
Moderna's share price traded below $20 in January 2020. The stock's value grew as the disease took hold. Moderna peaked in September of 2021. It began rising again in late November after dropping through the autumn. Moderna's share price traded above $280 by early December.
The congressman made statements against the vaccine mandates.
AP
Republican lawmakers who opposed the COVID-19 vaccine mandates invested in vaccine manufacturers.
The wife of a Georgia congressman traded up to $50,000 worth of Johnson & Johnson stock on two occasions this year. Austin Scott supports vaccines despite bashing President Joe Biden's workplace vaccine mandates, as he was hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020 and spent several days on oxygen.
"Congressman Scott and his wife own stocks that millions of American families do, and they follow all laws of trading," Rachel Ledbetter, Scott's spokeswoman, told Insider.
In August of 2021, the Republican from Alabama sold up to $50,000 worth of Pfizer stock, but he was late in filing his disclosure. The pharmaceutical giant was accused of playing politics with the timing of its announcement about vaccine-efficacy data by a pro-Trump lawmaker.
The congressman's wife told Insider that she used an investment broker to conduct stock transactions for the family. She admitted that she didn't tell the public about the stock transaction.
There is a method for this.
John Yarmuth sold shares in 3M.
The US House of Representatives.
Investments in 3M.
Democratic lawmakers invested in vaccine manufacturers and other companies involved in the relief effort for the Pandemic.
John Yarmuth, a Democrat of Kentucky who chairs the House Budget Committee, sold up to $15,000 worth of stock in 3M at the end of March 2020.
Yarmuth's spokesman said that the chairman has an investment manager who handles stock transactions, and that he had no role in the stock transaction.
Most members of Congress place their assets in a "qualified blind trust", which requires congressional approval, but Yarmuth has not done so.
Congressional guidance suggests that qualified blind trusts are the most comprehensive approach to avoiding potential conflicts of interest.
Tina Smith's husband held up to $250,000 worth of 3M shares. Her office didn't respond to the request for comment.
The wife of an Oregon congressman bought up to $15,000 worth of stock in a leading COVID-19 test provider. He didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.
In May 2020, Don Beyer of Virginia bought up to $15,000 worth of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals stock through a joint account. Between July and August 2020, he sold up to $30,000 worth of stock through a joint account.
Last year, doctors used a treatment made by Regeneron to treat Donald Trump.
The congressman doesn't personally manage or direct any purchases or sales in his stock portfolio. The only direction they have from their boss is to avoid investments in a few areas like fossil fuels, private prisons, etc., according to their spokesman.
Democrats have mixed messages.
Some lawmakers were against people looking to make money off of COVID-19-related treatments and defenses.
"This is not the time for anyone to be making money off of selling anything in the world," said Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat of New Jersey.
The lawmaker sold up to $15,000 worth of stock in Chembio Diagnostics in the early days of the Pandemic.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 states that it is illegal for members of Congress to engage in insider trading, but he failed to disclose dozens of stock trades in violation. Insider was told that the congressman employed a financial advisor to trade stocks.
A qualified blind trust has been set up for Malinowski. The Office of Congressional Ethics said that there was a reason to believe that he violated federal rules designed to promote transparency and defend against conflicts of interest. Insider found that a lawmaker in New Jersey has taken the option to use a qualified blind trust.
Some Democrats argue that their investments in these companies don't present a problem because they happened before the epidemic.
David Price, a Democrat from North Carolina, reported owning up to $50,000 worth of shares in 3M. The lawmaker told Insider that his investment was not influenced by current events.
He supports the STOCK Act because he believes it should be illegal for Members of Congress to use nonpublic information to enrich themselves.
Others did not manage their own investments. According to his spokeswoman, the New Jersey Democrat did not make any decisions about the trades.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville has invested in several companies.
Tuberville's spokeswoman, Ryann DuRant, previously told Insider that her boss did not personally make his stock trades and has had financial advisors who actively manage his portfolio without his day-to-day involvement. She did not say if Tuberville gives any direction to his advisors about which stocks to avoid. When Insider followed up on December 3, she didn't have anything new to say.
Tuberville is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has conducted hearings on COVID-19-related matters.
In July 2020, Carol Miller of West Virginia reported that her husband, Matt Miller, had bought up to $50,000 worth of shares of Abbott Laboratories. Carol Miller did not respond to questions about her financial statements.
Pfizer and Moderna are some of the biggest companies that lawmakers invested in.
Hazem Bader is pictured.
Conflicts and pharmaceutical contributions.
Concerns about ethics and conflicts of interest have been raised by the trading of companies' stock by lawmakers.
Stanley Brand, who served as a general counsel to the US House of Representatives, told Insider that the new regulation could create a regulatory nightmare.
He said that if these people were disqualified, their votes wouldn't be cast. If you had that rule, you could disqualify half of the committee. I don't know, maybe you wouldn't even get a quorum, depending on what these people own.
The issue doesn't seem to be going away soon. The pharmaceutical companies at the center of the response have been increasing their lobbying efforts.
OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics, says that Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson contributed more than $4 million to candidates and committees in the 2020 election cycle.
Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson gave more to Democrats.
Pfizer spent the most money lobbying members of Congress during the Pandemic. Pfizer spent nearly $11 million on lobbying the federal government in 2020. Johnson & Johnson spent $7.9 million on lobbying in 2020. Moderna spent $420,000 on federal lobbying in 2021, an increase from $280,000 in 2020.
The flow of money in and out of the US Capitol, be it campaign contributions to elected officials, or sitting lawmakers investing in industries they're supposed to oversee, underscored an erosion of ethical standards in Congress.
"We've seen 50 years of a steady unraveling of government ethics at the hands of wealthy special interests and the politicians who serve them," Silver said.
He said that self-correction is too much to ask of this or any other Congress.
He told Insider that both parties were benefiting from the status quo. The best way for the country to get back on track is for voters to cut ties with self-serving opportunists. The situation is not as good as the American public thinks.
