Pelosi, Boehner stock trades questioned

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., deny using their positions to make money in the stock market.

Both were questioned by CBS News for a report on congressional stock trading to air Sunday on "60 Minutes," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Members of Congress cannot be prosecuted under insider trading laws. Two studies by academic researchers have found they had returns on their investments 6 percent above the market from 1985 to 2001 and beat the market by more than 12 percent between 1993 and 1998.

CBS correspondent Steve Kroft asked Pelosi about her failure to bring a bill aimed at protecting credit card holders to a vote in the House two years after she and her husband purchased millions of dollars worth of Visa stock. She said President George W. Bush would not have signed the measure and she backed a tougher bill that passed after President Obama took over.

"I will hold my record in fighting the credit card companies, as a speaker of the House or as a member of Congress, up against anyone." Pelosi said. "We had passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights. I don't know what your point is."

Boehner told Kroft he does not make his trading decisions, leaving that to a financial adviser. He was asked about trading in insurance stocks before he announced that a proposed national health insurance plan would not pass.

Pelosi supports a bill to extend insider trading laws to members of Congress that was first introduced in 2006.