Oregon Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle violated rules meant to increase the transparency of stock transactions by members of Congress, according to a recent report by the non-profit Open Secrets.
The report states that 217 stock transactions were not disclosed within the mandated 45 days. The violation comes on top of not filing a Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act report by an Aug. 13 deadline, per reporting by NOTUS.
Hoyle told KLCC the purchases arose when her husband’s employer switched his retirement plan from a pension to an individually managed 401(k) and his financial planner invested his retirement savings.
A spokesperson for Hoyle said the total amount invested is around $500,000.
"I realized that when I was filling out my financials reporting form. And as soon as I realized that, we reported everything and will continue to do that on a monthly basis," she said.
Hoyle stated that they did not direct her husband’s financial advisor on individual stocks that should be purchased.
“My husband is meeting with his financial advisor [Wednesday] so that we can have something that is in writing that shows that he did not have any influence over which stocks were purchased, but rather the advisor said, ‘I think you should put this much in individual stocks and this much in mutual funds,’ and then [the advisor] chose to invest it without any influence or suggestions from either of us,” she said.
Hoyle has paid a $200 penalty for a first violation. She stressed that the fine was paid by her personally and not her campaign or taxpayers.
According to Open Secrets, Hoyle is one of 13 Democrats and 11 Republicans in Congress who have violated federal personal financial disclosure laws this year.
Rep. Hoyle is also a sponsor on three bills aimed at limiting members of Congress’ ability to trade stocks, bonds, commodities and other securities. They variously either force such investments to be held by a blind trust or outright ban their individual ownership by members, their spouses or dependent children.
Hoyle said a lesson that should also be taken from this is the migration away from pensions to employer-sponsored retirement savings plans.
“Employers are saying, ‘okay, you should have a private 401(k), a defined contribution program, and normal working people are struggling with one job to be able to live a solid middle-class lifestyle and retire in dignity. And I think that really is the story here,” she said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that, in 2023, 15% of private sector workers had access to a defined benefit retirement plan. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said changing from a defined-benefit pension to retirement accounts such as a 401(k) reallocates investment risk from the employer to the employee.
