Congressional Trading: 2025 volumes up 47%, with Khanna leading in activity

Congressional stock trading activity surged in 2025, with members disclosing 14,451 trades worth approximately $720 million. This represents a 47 percent increase in activity compared to 2024. A separate report using different data metrics placed the total at 13,324 trades and $635.57 million for the year.

The volume of transactions has drawn scrutiny, yet performance data suggests frequent trading does not guarantee market outperformance. Only 32 percent of members who traded in 2025 beat the S&P 500’s 16.6 percent return. Roughly 48 percent of the 535 members of Congress, or 258 lawmakers, currently own individual stocks. An additional 46 percent hold only diversified investments, while about 6 percent report no stock market exposure.

Rep. Ro Khanna of California leads the chamber by transaction count. He made 4,284 trades across 579 different stocks in 2025. Another analysis cited more than 4,900 trades for the same period. Khanna’s personal net worth has grown from roughly $800,000 when he first ran for office to over $30 million. His office attributes these trades to an independently managed portfolio often linked to his spouse.

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas ranks highly by dollar volume. He executed 1,008 trades totaling about $57.7 million in 2025. By comparison, Khanna’s 4,107 trades totaled roughly $53.4 million. This distinction highlights that trade count and dollar volume measure different aspects of market participation. Other active traders include Rep. Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, and Sen. Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Pelosi’s portfolio has grown from under $800,000 in 1987 to over $130 million today, a return of nearly 17,000 percent. Trading spikes often follow major market events. Following President Trump’s tariff announcement in April, House lawmakers and their families made 1,865 trades. Both Khanna and Bresnahan were among the most active during that surge, citing outside financial advisors for their decisions.

The legal framework governing these trades is the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. It requires members to file investment disclosures within 45 days for transactions exceeding $1,000. Compliance remains inconsistent. In 2025, more than 1,200 trades across over 40 members were disclosed late, with some delays stretching past 900 days. The House passed H.R. 7008, the Stop Insider Trading Act, while the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would ban stock ownership for members and immediate family, has been introduced as companion legislation.