Sen. John Fetterman failed for years to comply with requirements to disclose his children's sizable stock portfolios, even as the Pennsylvania Democrat led a crusade to "hold Washington accountable" by banning lawmakers and their families from owning stocks.
Fetterman’s three minor children own between $45,000 and $675,000 in stocks, and between $53,000 and $445,000 in corporate bonds, according to an annual financial disclosure he submitted this week. Fetterman amended disclosures he submitted as a Senate candidate in 2021 and 2022 and as an elected official last year to reflect his kids’ portfolios. Senate ethics rules require senators to report "assets, transactions, gifts, travel reimbursements, and liabilities" for dependent children.
Many of the stocks and bonds are in major banks like Citigroup and J.P. Morgan, which Fetterman regulates as part of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
Fetterman did not list his kids’ investments in his disclosures as a Senate candidate on May 17, 2021, and July 29, 2022, or in his first filing as an elected official on May 15, 2023, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of his filings. That filing listed between $600,000 and $1.25 million in his children's checking accounts.
The belated disclosures could undercut Fetterman’s image as an ethics crusader who has said the Senate should "be getting shit done for the people, not their own portfolios." The Pennsylvania Democrat, whose wealthy father funded his lifestyle until Fetterman was in his late 40s, said in his Senate campaign in 2022 he would "push to ban Members of Congress and their families from holding or trading stocks."
"Congress already has enough perks—insider trading shouldn’t be one of them," Fetterman’s campaign website reads. Last year, he cosponsored the ETHICS Act, which would ban lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children from owning or trading corporate securities. Lawmakers’ kids are permitted to own a total of $10,000 in securities, according to the proposed bill. The Fetterman kids have managed accounts overseen by a broker, though those are not exempt from the ETHICS Act.
"Senator Fetterman filed an amendment to his financial disclosures that included investments for his children that were created by generous grandparents who were unaware of the reporting requirements," a Fetterman spokeswoman said. "Once Senator Fetterman was made aware of the investments, he immediately filed the appropriate disclosures." It is unclear whether Fetterman plans to divest their holdings.
The investments undercut another Fetterman battle cry. "Lawmakers should not be able to profit off the same companies that they are regulating," he said last year. But the Fetterman family owns tens of thousands of dollars in the stocks and bonds of banks that Fetterman regulates as part of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
They own up to $30,000 in JPMorgan bonds, up to $15,000 in Citigroup stock, up to $15,000 in Bank of America bonds, up to $15,000 in First Horizon bank bonds, and up to $100,000 in Barclays Bank bonds, the disclosures show.
The committee held an oversight hearing with the CEOs of many of those companies in December.
Brokers for Fetterman’s children conducted 31 trades last year in corporate stocks and bonds in transactions totaling between $59,000 and $435,000 in firms like Marathon Oil, JP Morgan, General Electric, and Wells Fargo.