WASHINGTON — At a Capitol Hill news conference last week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., threatened to force a vote on legislation banning lawmakers from owning or trading stocks, arguing members can’t represent their constituents when they are focused on their own investments.
“Frankly, the fact that members are getting, what, plus-600% returns on their investments is wrong,” Luna said, flanked by both Democratic and Republican co-sponsors of the stock trading ban bill. “But more importantly, how could you ever be expected to represent your constituents when you’re clearly worried about your pocketbook?”
On Monday, President Donald Trump endorsed Luna’s push, posting a video on Truth Social of the congresswoman threatening to force a vote on the congressional stock ban.
But Luna’s most recent financial disclosure statement shows she has a significant investment of her own, illustrating how lawmakers could hold assets that pose potential conflicts of interest, even if the stock trading ban that she’s pushed for becomes law.
Luna reported in July on a financial disclosure form that she has invested $250,001 to $500,000 in America First Natural Resources LLC, a company founded and managed by one of her political donors, Bruce N. Rosenthal, who has described it as a private equity firm focused on domestic energy exploration and production.
Luna’s office said she owns no stock in America First Natural Resources (AFNR), emphasizing that she has another kind of “investment” and that she does not own any kind of stock in any company.
There is no law that broadly prohibits members of Congress from investing with political donors, but, asked about Luna’s investment, ethics groups raised concerns.
“You don’t need to be an ethics expert to see the problem with a member of Congress investing in a donor’s company that could likely be affected by the decisions of one of her committees. This kind of behavior is likely permissible according to laws and ethics rules, but that doesn’t mean it’s right,” said Donald K. Sherman, the executive director and chief counsel at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.
“Members of Congress make the ethics rules for Congress and have the power to ensure the public is confident that their representatives are working in the peoples’ best interests, not their own,” Sherman added. “Hopefully, Rep. Luna can be a leader in changing the rules on this issue, as she has on congressional stock trading.”
Luna sits on both the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees energy and mining on federal lands, and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which investigates government abuse, but her office said she is not a member of panels that have jurisdiction over her investments.
In a statement, a Luna spokesman was emphatic that the congresswoman does not currently own any stocks and that all of her investments had been cleared by ethics attorneys.
“Rep. Luna DOES NOT OWN ANY STOCKS.