Between February 3 and February 19 of this year, Rep. Tony Wied of Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District reported buying between $760,000 and $1.6 million in individual stocks. In the same 17-day window, he sold between $600,000 and $1.5 million more. His March disclosure filing runs five pages and lists 25 separate transactions. By the Campaign Legal Center's accounting, Wied's trading volume is the most aggressive of any member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, and among the highest in the House.
Wied is a freshman Republican, elected in 2024. Before Congress, he owned a gas station chain in the Green Bay area. He is now a sitting U.S. representative with access to classified briefings, advance knowledge of legislative schedules, and committee assignments that place him in oversight of industries he is actively trading in. No legal violation has been identified. No investigation has been opened. No reform has passed that would change any of this.
That is the story. The trading is legal. The conflict is real. And the legislation that would fix it is stalled.
What the STOCK Act Was Supposed to Do and Didn't
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, passed in 2012, requires members of Congress to disclose trades within 45 days. It was presented as a solution to the congressional insider trading problem. It was not. The STOCK Act has no criminal enforcement mechanism that has ever been used against a sitting member. As of early 2026, at least 72 members of Congress had failed to file required disclosures on time. No member has ever been prosecuted under the act.
Wied's trades appear to comply with current STOCK Act requirements. He disclosed them within the required window. That is the problem: compliance with a disclosure law that has no enforcement is not the same thing as accountability. Approximately 20 percent of members of Congress are buying and selling stocks in areas where their official duties create potential conflicts of interest, according to research cited by the Campaign Legal Center. The law requires them to tell you about it. It does not require them to stop.
The Reform That Cannot Move
A bipartisan bill called the Restore Trust in Congress Act would ban members of Congress and their immediate families from trading individual stocks. It has support from both parties. It is stalled in committee. A separate measure called the Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest Act has also been introduced and has not moved. The Stop Insider Trading Act, which this blog has covered before, missed its Q1 2026 deadline without a vote.
The pattern is consistent across multiple Congresses and both parties: reform bills are introduced, generate press attention, collect bipartisan co-sponsors, and die in committee. The members who would need to vote to pass the reform are often the same members who are actively trading. The incentive structure does not favor the reform.
The Specific Problem With Wied
Wied's trading is notable not just for its volume but for its timing and scope. A freshman member in his first full months of office, with freshly granted access to committee briefings and legislative intelligence, reported more than $2.3 million in combined stock activity in a single 17-day stretch. He has declined to discuss the substance of his trades publicly.
Experts quoted by the Wisconsin Examiner and the Badger Project note that even absent a provable violation, high-volume trading by lawmakers creates real and perceived conflicts that erode public trust in the institution. Kedric Payne of the Campaign Legal Center said simply: "the problem is getting worse."
Wied is one representative. The underlying structure enables hundreds more to do the same thing, in every session, for as long as the reform bills keep dying in committee.
Sources: Wisconsin Examiner | The Badger Project | Campaign Legal Center
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