GEOFF BENNETT: A recent Wall Street Journal analysis reveals a surge in stock trading by lawmakers and their families in early April, as President Trump's shifting stance on tariffs sent markets into turmoil.

AMNA NAWAZ: But while some members cashed in, others are looking to highlight lawmakers' trades and bar Congress from betting on Wall Street.

Lisa Desjardins has that story.

LISA DESJARDINS: From his office in Los Angeles, 29-year-old Chris Josephs is changing the way people see wealth and power.

CHRIS JOSEPHS, Co-Founder, Autopilot: I didn't aspire to be an expert of what Nancy Pelosi or other politicians are stock trading on a day-to-day basis, but it's been an incredible ride.

LISA DESJARDINS: A few years ago, he saw news stories about members of Congress making big stock trades during COVID.

KRISTEN WELKER, Moderator, "Meet the Press": Senators are under a microscope for selling off stocks.

TUCKER CARLSON, Former FOX News Anchor: Betraying your country in a time of crisis.

ARI MELBER, MSNBC Host: The first Washington scandal of the coronavirus era.

LISA DESJARDINS: And while they must disclose their trades within 45 days and they can't use insider knowledge, lawmakers are free to trade on stocks for industries they oversee or write legislation about.

Josephs got on his computer and launched a name and sometimes shame effort on Twitter, the Pelosi Tracker, highlighting some trades by lawmakers and their families, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul.

The idea took off and so did the profits for tens of thousands who followed the account and Joseph's Autopilot app.

The Pelosi trades are the most popular of many lawmaker choices.

Seeing it all, Josephs questions if this is fair play.

CHRIS JOSEPHS: Everything that we have on the data size points to these politicians from when we have been tracking them have done a great job trading stocks.

We think there is alpha.

LISA DESJARDINS: For those who don't know, alpha means?

CHRIS JOSEPHS: An edge.

REP. SETH MAGAZINER (D-RI): This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people lose trust in their government, and we need to end it.

LISA DESJARDINS: Rhode Island Democratic Congressman Seth Magaziner is a main sponsor of the TRUST in Congress Act, which would ban members of Congress and their families from trading individual stocks.

REP. SETH MAGAZINER: Members of Congress, when we make decisions about how to vote on a bill, we should be making decisions based on what we think is best for the American people, not what is best for our investment accounts.

LISA DESJARDINS: The liberal is part of an unusual coalition.

His main cosponsor is conservative Chip Roy, and working with them are moderate Republican Brian Fitzpatrick and progressive lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal.

The effort is getting new attention in light of President Trump's own actions.

Ahead of his tariff pause on April 9, Trump posted on a social media platform: "This is a great time to buy stocks."

That day and the day before, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who discloses her trades immediately, bought stock in nearly 20 companies and sold tens of thousands of U.S. Treasury bonds.

Others have done well in general.

Autopilot trackers have Paul Pelosi up more than 15 percent over the past year, Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw over 18, and New York Democrat Dan Goldman not far behind.

But some Congress watchers say those are defensible gains and a stock trade ban would be a mistake.

So, ethically, do you think members of Congress should be trading stocks at all?

J.W.

VERRET, George Mason University: I don't think they should be trading it based on information they learn through their job, but I think it's fine to trade stocks, sure.

LISA DESJARDINS: J.W.

Verret is a former Hill staffer, conservative and George Mason law professor specializing in banking and securities law.

He says plenty of lawmakers may think they have an edge on Wall Street.

J.W.

VERRET: Members of leadership do have actionable information from time to time.

Your average backbencher doesn't have much information.

For your average member of Congress, they're going to earn an above-average return just by being in the upper-income category and using a financial adviser.

LISA DESJARDINS: Verret says voters already can see members' trades and act on possible conflicts.

His big concern with the ban is that the White House would enforce it and could target specific opponents in Congress.

J.W.

VERRET: I am more comfortable with Congress policing itself for ethics issues.

LISA DESJARDINS: The idea of a trading ban has some very big backers, including Pelosi herself, President Trump, and Democratic Leaders Schumer and Jeffries.

It also polls north of 80 percent across parties.

The question is, will it get a chance to advance in Congress?

REP. SETH MAGAZINER: I believe that if this gets to the floor it will pass by a wide margin.

We have bipartisan support, Republicans and Democrats who support this.

The American people support it.

But Speaker Johnson is the gatekeeper.

LISA DESJARDINS: Johnson has not committed to bringing a ban to a vote, but he supports the bill, ish.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The counterargument is -- and I have some sympathy -- look, at least let them, like, engage in some stock trading so that they can continue to take care of their family.

But, on balance, my view is, we probably should do that, because I think it's been abused in the past.

LISA DESJARDINS: In the present, unelected Americans like Mason Graetz are trying to benefit.

The Minneapolis engineer has used the tracker and the app to trade off Paul Pelosi's picks for a year and recently checked his accounts.

MASON GRAETZ, Autopilot User: I believe my portfolio was at about 50 percent return.

LISA DESJARDINS: Five-zero percent?

MASON GRAETZ: Correct, yes.

LISA DESJARDINS: Those are incredible returns, but, to Mason, disturbing.

Based on what he's seen, he wants the Congress stock ban.

MASON GRAETZ: A small portion of voters are looking into and are seeing a lot of discrepancies and similarities between the legislation that they're directly working on and the stocks that they are buying as a result of that.

So I think that's a major issue that we need to address.

LISA DESJARDINS: It's a financial price he's willing to pay to gain more trust in Congress.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

GEOFF BENNETT: Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene declined our interview requests for this story.

In a statement, Pelosi's team tells us she has no involvement in any of her husband's transactions.

A spokesperson for Greene says all of her investments are controlled by a financial adviser, noting she normally finds out about trades when the media comes calling.