MADISON, Wis. — New reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposes Congressman Tony Wied for trading stock while sitting on committees that oversee and draft legislation that impacts the industries in his portfolio.
Wied sits on the House Small Business, Agriculture and Transportation and Infrastructure committees that offer him broader insight on issues related to business, agriculture, and transportation than the general public, and despite this, Wied has executed stock trades that those committees impact while in Congress. According to the reporting, experts are raising questions on the conflicts of interest between his personal life and government duties.

“Tony Wied’s constituents in the Eighth Congressional District are pinching pennies to afford gas and groceries, all while Wied has made himself millions of dollars richer,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Haley King. “It’s no wonder he doesn’t show up in his district unless it’s a press conference or events voters need to pay to get into—he doesn’t want to have to answer for his record of supporting cost raising measures, such as Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war, all while lining his own pockets.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tony Wied’s Trades Show Reason for Stock Trading Rules, Experts Say
By: Valerie Yurk | 10/9/26

Throughout this Congress, U.S. Republican Rep. Tony Wied has repeatedly bought and sold stocks of financial, railroad and farming companies while simultaneously serving on committees that oversee those industries and drafting legislation that could affect the businesses in his personal portfolio.

Wied, a first term member who represents Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District, sits on the House Small Business, Agriculture and Transportation and Infrastructure committees, panels that have jurisdiction over business, transportation and agricultural topics. The posts provide him broader insight into these topics than the public.

The congressman has frequently executed trades, including of Visa Inc., Canadian National Railway Co. and Tractor Supply Co., during this Congress, according to federal disclosure records.

Wied has not been accused of wrongdoing and there’s no evidence he has broken congressional rules. But federal ethics experts who reviewed his disclosures for the Journal Sentinel said Wied’s trading activities raise questions about conflicts of interest between his personal life and government duties.

The gray area only stresses the need for changes to Congress’ stock trading rules, they said.

[…]

Members of U.S. Congress are required to disclose any transaction of stocks, bonds or other securities held by themselves, their spouse or dependent children when the gross amount of a single transaction exceeds $1,000. The filing is called a periodic transaction report, or PTR.

Wied is the only member of Wisconsin’s U.S. congressional delegation who filed PTRs during the 119th Congress.

[…]

Klymova specifically pointed to a handful of trades in February, when Wied disclosed two stock sales of Block Inc., a digital payment company, and a purchase of Visa Inc. stock. Each transaction was individually worth between $50,000 and $100,000, according to federal disclosures.

In early March, the House Agriculture Committee, of which Wied is a member, took up its massive farm bill that authorizes billions of dollars for federal agriculture programs.

When the bill passed the House in April, Wied’s office touted his amendment that would make permanent a previous farm bill’s temporary prohibition on processing fees for Electronic Benefits Transfer cards – a change that would impact companies like Visa and Block, who earn from SNAP/EBT transaction fees.

“That was happening within the short increment of time, and that creates a clear conflict of interest or an appearance of such,” Klymova said. “That is a big problem, which honestly can be solved by banning or restricting purchases of individual securities by public officials, and specifically, congressmen.”

Another federal ethics expert familiar with the stock trading issue confirmed to the Journal Sentinel the trades would “absolutely raise questions” as to whether Wied is using his position as a public official on behalf of his personal financial interests, “even if they don’t rise to the level of insider trading.”

Wied’s trades overlap with small business, transportation committees

Aside from the House Agriculture Committee, Wied also sits on committees covering transportation, infrastructure and small-business policy.

In April, Wied was appointed as the top Republican of the Small Business Committee’s contracting and infrastructure subcommittee, giving him the authority to set the sub-panel’s legislative agenda, oversight inquiries and other functions.

According to the committee website, the panel works to “assess the federal procurement system, including those programs designed specifically to enhance participation by small businesses in providing goods and services to the federal government.”

After taking that role, Wied a few months later disclosed several transactions involving companies that could overlap with the committee’s jurisdiction – including computer software company Adobe Inc., customer management software company Salesforce Inc., web marketing company Hubspot Inc., and marketing automation company Trade Desk Inc.

He continues to buy and sell stocks of these companies, including a number of transactions worth between $15,000 and $50,000 in August and a few more in September. Those disclosures include more transactions of digital enterprise companies like ServiceNow Inc., an AI business platform, and Upstart Holdings Inc., an AI lending marketplace.

In February 2025, Wied completed two transactions worth between $50,000 and $100,000 of Tractor Supply Co., a chain store catering to farmers, and another sale of Canadian National Railway Co. worth the same amount, according to disclosures.

Concerns over conflicts of interests in lawmakers’ stock holdings is hardly new, nor that uncommon. A 2022 New York Times report found that nearly one-fifth of U.S. lawmakers between 2019 and 2021 reported trades that intersected with the work of committees on which they serve. Wied was not a member of U.S. Congress at that time.

Latest stock trading bill voted down in the Senate

The congressional stock trading ban has blossomed into a campaign issue in Wisconsin, especially for Steil. In a recent campaign ad, Steil touted his bill to rein in stock trading in Congress. His opponent, Democrat Mitchell Berman, has also seized on the issue, proclaiming in a campaign ad, “Bryan Steil and I both chase bucks. The difference is, mine has antlers.”

Steil’s bill, called the Stop Insider Trading Act, passed in the House but recently failed in the U.S. Senate after Democrats said the bill doesn’t go far enough. Wisconsin’s Baldwin was among those who voted against it.

Proponents of Steil’s bill, like Klymova, argue it would place sensible guardrails on U.S. lawmakers’ trading while still preserving “their right to private property or to invest in the market.”

“It does eliminate the most important thing, which is purchasing stocks,” she said. “It does have a requirement to disclose sales, so they can they could still sell certain individual stocks with prior disclosure, but I think purchases is what is important.”

Other federal ethics groups, like the Project on Government Oversight and the Campaign Legal Center, argue it should ban stock sales by members of Congress outright and also require lawmakers to sell their holdings before entering Congress.

“Today’s vote makes it clear that some lawmakers won’t be fooled by an imposter stock trading ban. Instead of trying to jam through a watered-down bill riddled with loopholes and saddled with a poison-pill provision on voting rights, the bill’s backers should focus on passing a genuine, bipartisan ban that stops members of Congress from using inside knowledge to benefit their personal stock portfolios,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of POGO, in a statement after the Senate vote.