On paper, the idea of banning congressional stock trades has all the ingredients for success: supermajority support in polls, bipartisan sponsors, and public backing from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Everything in Washington, however, is not as it seems.

Ahead of a House committee hearing on the flaws of the current rules on congressional stock trades, sponsors of the leading reform proposal were split on its chances. Some of the bill’s backers were even divided as to whether the hearing itself represented a genuine step forward — or, potentially, a delay tactic from House leadership.

Some proponents worry Johnson scheduled the hearing to placate them while kicking the can down the road on more concrete advancement, like marking up and voting on the measure.

The House speaker has expressed support for a stock trading ban, but he also said that he has “sympathy” for the counterargument that members need to wheel and deal in stocks in order to support their families.

“The speaker could have just gone directly to markup on this bill if he were supportive of it.”

“The hearing was positive and everybody was supportive of restricting congressional stock trading activity, but it’s sort of a delay tactic,” said Craig Holman, the Capitol Hill lobbyist for the nonprofit good governance group Public Citizen. “The speaker could have just gone directly to markup on this bill if he were supportive of it. He has expressed support of the concept, but not the bill itself.” (Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)

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