One of Congress’ wealthiest members, Rep. Jefferson Shreve of Indiana, has voluntarily stopped trading individual stocks, his office confirmed to NOTUS.
In June, Shreve “directed the asset manager” of his charitable remainder trust — a kind of tax-advantaged trust that also benefits charities of the owner’s choosing — “to divest from individual stocks,” spokesperson Hannah Benfield said.
“The congressman wants to be transparent and clear that the trust assets will go to charity,” Benfield said. “The transactions made by the trust are to the benefit of charity — and not him personally.”
Benfield did not respond to further questions about what charity or charities Shreve’s trust benefits.
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Shreve’s decision to quit stock trading came after NOTUS revealed how the congressman, through his trust, had made more than 140 individual stock purchases and sales between April 7 and April 17 — the days immediately after financial markets swung wildly following President Donald Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff declaration.
Shreve’s choice to voluntarily ditch individual stocks also arrives amid a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to ban elected officials and their families from buying, selling and holding individual stocks because of concerns about financial conflicts of interest and potential insider trading.
Some of the companies Shreve’s trust traded fell within the jurisdiction of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation, where Shreve sits. They included GE Aerospace, motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson, cruise line Carnival Corporation, rail company Norfolk Southern, marine recreation outfit Brunswick Corporation, rideshare company Uber, trucking and logistics services company Schneider National and railroad giant CSX.
Members looking to tighten the rules around trading are also motivated by dozens of members of Congress — including several in the past few months — who have violated the disclosure provisions of the existing Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
Benfield did not say whether Shreve supports the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which has become the leading legislative vehicle in the House for banning congressional stock trading.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, is attempting to force Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the bill up for a full vote of the House. Shreve has not yet joined 67 House members — including 15 Republicans — who as of Monday had signed a discharge petition that aims to prompt a stock-ban vote.
Sarah Bonk, founder and CEO of nonprofit Business for America, a nonpartisan group that has urged Congress to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks, praised Shreve’s decision.
“We welcome any representative to take steps to show their constituents that they’re prioritizing their constituents’ interests and not their own trading portfolio,” Bonk told NOTUS. “There are plenty of other ways for them to benefit from our markets.”
Like Shreve, Rep. Julie Johnson, a Democrat from Texas and one of Congress’ top stock traders, confirmed in September that she was ending her stock-trading ways. Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont and Reps. George Whitesides of California and Greg Landsman of Ohio have also pledged to stop trading individual stocks.
Shreve’s congressional district includes a portion of Indianapolis, Indianapolis’ southern and eastern suburbs and more rural land eastward to the Ohio state line. In 2022, before entering Congress, he sold his Storage Express self-storage company to Extra Space Storage Inc. for $590 million.
Beyond his trust, Shreve continues to make major personal financial moves — although ones that also abstain from buying and selling individual stocks.
New congressional financial disclosure records indicate that Shreve on Nov. 13 purchased between $5 million and $25 million in 13-month structured notes from the Bank of Montreal.
Shreve also purchased a five-year “barrier note” worth between $5 million and $25 million from JPMorgan, according to the disclosures.
Such structured notes are complex debt securities, issued by banks, that generally feature a large bond component as well as a smaller derivative component that may include any manner of investments from stocks to commodities to real estate.
Shreve “has chosen to make conservative investments in 13-month and 5-year bank notes as opposed to individual securities,” Benfield confirmed.
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