Four members of Congress who sit in committees that directly regulate Elon Musk’s SpaceX now have a family stake in the company’s stock.
Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-California) and family members of Reps. John McGuire (R-Virginia), Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania) and John James (R-Michigan) have together purchased up to $130,000 in SpaceX stock since the company’s initial public offering on June 12.
All four lawmakers sit on powerful House committees that could influence SpaceX business operations — two on the House Armed Services Committee, which is charged with drafting a yearly defense authorization bill and has oversight of SpaceX, a major defense contractor.
James, who sits in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is deeply influential on AI policy, reported that his wife purchased up to $50,000 in SpaceX stock on June 12, the same day the stock went public.
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“The James children are excited about space exploration and Liz purchased stock for them through a brokerage firm, like other members of the public were welcome to do,” Ryan Kazmirzack, a spokesperson for James, told NOTUS.
Cisneros disclosed that he bought $1,000 to $15,000 worth of SpaceX stock on June 18. Cisneros has been a vocal critic of Musk, particularly when the billionaire was leading President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative aimed at cutting government spending and the federal workforce.
Federal financial disclosure laws only require lawmakers to disclose their trades in broad ranges.
McGuire’s wife also bought up to $15,000 worth of stock in SpaceX on June 18, congressional records show. McGuire, who’s a member of the congressional DOGE Caucus, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Meuser acknowledged in a congressional filing that his dependent child bought up to $50,000 worth of SpaceX stock on June 15, three days after the stock went public. Meuser chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The committee is charged with regulating the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Representatives for Cisneros, McGuire and Meuser did not respond to NOTUS’ repeated requests for comment.
“That is the very problem with members of Congress playing on the stock market. They frequently buy and sell stocks in businesses that they oversee from their congressional perches,” Craig Holman, a longtime congressional government ethics attorney for Public Citizen, told NOTUS.
“Members of Congress should not own or trade individual stocks in industries that they oversee. It is an obvious conflict of interest that any regular person can understand. Public service is a choice. Not just for members, but for their immediate families,” Donald Sherman, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told NOTUS.
The interest in having elected leaders in Congress that operate without conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflict of interest, Sherman said, “has to supersede any inconvenience that a stock ban might have on a member or their immediate family.”
SpaceX’s public offering has been controversial after shares were rushed into public stock exchanges, such as the NASDAQ, only 15 trading days after going public.
Democrats in Congress have already pressed stock exchange executives about their decision to expedite the usual cooling-off period that allows stocks to reach a stable price after the initial wave of excitement about a company going public passes. SpaceX’s share price dropped under its IPO price on Wednesday.
This year, the House and Senate have considered bills banning members of Congress from trading and owning individual stocks. A House Republican committee advanced a bill to ban members from trading stocks but would let them retain stocks they already own. A similar proposal is slated for a House vote next week as Congress prepares to leave town for August recess.
SpaceX is a conglomerate of Musk-founded companies that include xAI, which develops Grok and the social media platform X; Starlink, a satellite connectivity company; and SpaceX, a commercial rocket company. All of the companies rely heavily on government contracts from many federal agencies.
Last year, the Defense Department awarded a $200 million contract to major AI companies, including xAI. SpaceX also received a $4 billion contract with the Pentagon last month for threat-detection satellites and a separate $2 billion contract in May for networking technology. The National Defense Authorization Act has several provisions meant to accelerate the construction of the Golden Dome, a proposed air defense system for which SpaceX could become a contractor.
SpaceX has proved to be a popular stock even before it went public. In September, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Michigan) bought up to $250,000 worth of SpaceX stock during a private offering shortly before the Pentagon announced a deal with xAI.
McClain, who has twice violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act’s stock trade disclosure rules, as NOTUS previously reported, defended her trades during a TV interview in January. She argued it was not insider trading, “because if it was we wouldn’t have bought a hundred thousand shares, we would’ve bought a heck of a lot more.”
Holman says when members of Congress aggressively trade individual stocks, it absolutely provides “the opportunity for insider trading, if they trade based on insider information on how business trends are expected to change.”
“They are in a position to affect public policies that can manipulate those business trends,” Holman said. “Members of Congress and their spouses should be prohibited from playing on the stock markets altogether while in public office.”
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