Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ): Finance Committee Seat, Bank Stock Holdings, and a Letter to Roll Back Consumer Protections

Rep. Josh Gottheimer represents New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District and has served on the House Financial Services Committee throughout his tenure. The committee writes the rules for banks, investment firms, insurance companies, and cryptocurrency markets. During his years in that seat, the financial industry has been his most consistent donor bloc. Campaign finance records show he received nearly $290,000 in career contributions from four Wall Street firms he later urged regulators to accommodate. He also personally traded stocks in companies regulated by his committee, including selling Silicon Valley Bank shares one day before federal regulators seized it.

Who Funds Gottheimer

According to campaign finance data compiled by The American Prospect from Federal Election Commission records through 2019, Gottheimer’s named career contributors from Wall Street included Blackstone Group employees ($116,050), Goldman Sachs PAC and employees ($80,150), Morgan Stanley PAC and employees ($49,100), and JPMorgan Chase PAC and employees ($44,999). These four firms alone accounted for nearly $290,000 in career contributions at the time of that reporting.

In the 2024 election cycle, OpenSecrets reported that securities and investment firms remained Gottheimer’s top donor industry sector overall.

In the 2024 Democratic primary, the cryptocurrency super PAC Fairshake spent more than $240,000 in independent expenditures supporting Gottheimer, according to CoinTelegraph and FactCheck.org. Fairshake is funded primarily by Coinbase, Ripple, and the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The 2019 Dodd-Frank Letter

In July 2019, Gottheimer co-signed a letter with 16 other House Democrats urging federal regulators to take “quick action” to repeal an inter-affiliate collateral requirement under the Dodd-Frank Act. That provision requires banks to set aside a cash cushion when conducting derivatives transactions between their own affiliates, protecting government-insured consumer deposits from losses in speculative trading.

The letter asked for relief for the six member banks of the Financial Services Forum: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Citigroup.

At the time he sent the letter, Gottheimer’s personal financial disclosures showed his household held stock in several of those same institutions: Goldman Sachs ($1,001 to $15,000), JPMorgan Chase ($1,001 to $15,000), Wells Fargo ($15,001 to $50,000), Morgan Stanley ($1,001 to $15,000), and the iShares U.S. Financial ETF ($15,001 to $50,000). The American Prospect reported that his total finance industry holdings reached up to $315,000.

The FIT21 Crypto Bill

In May 2024, Gottheimer helped negotiate and advance the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (known as FIT21) through the House Financial Services Committee. The Republican-led bill subsequently passed the full House. Gottheimer served on the committee’s subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence throughout this process.

Committee Democrats including Ranking Member Maxine Waters argued that the bill contained loopholes and described it as “a wish list of Big Crypto.” Consumer advocates raised concerns that the framework would weaken investor protections in markets already associated with significant retail losses from fraud and exchange failures.

In the same election cycle, Fairshake spent more than $240,000 backing Gottheimer’s 2024 primary, the largest independent expenditure in a New Jersey House race that year.

Stock Trading While Overseeing Financial Markets

A September 2022 analysis found that over a three-year period, Gottheimer had made trades involving 326 companies, with 43 transactions flagged as potential conflicts of interest given his committee responsibilities.

In August 2022, financial disclosures revealed that Gottheimer failed to report a trade in Independent Bank Corporation stock within the 45-day window required by the STOCK Act. The trade occurred in November 2021. Congress did not receive the disclosure until August 2022, approximately nine months after the deadline.

In February 2022, Gottheimer pledged to establish a blind trust for his personal holdings. As of June 2024, the statement memorializing that pledge had been removed from his House website. No blind trust was publicly documented as having been established.

During the March 2023 banking crisis, Gottheimer sold Silicon Valley Bank stock after the bank had signaled financial distress and one day before federal regulators seized it. He also sold Charles Schwab stock and purchased Morgan Stanley shares during the same period. His representative said investment decisions had been delegated to a third party. No ethics investigation or formal charges resulted from any of these trades.

What This Means for NJ-5 Constituents

The Dodd-Frank collateral requirement Gottheimer asked regulators to repeal exists specifically to protect government-insured deposits. If banks can conduct risky derivatives trades between their own affiliates without setting aside protective capital, losses from those trades can flow closer to consumer accounts.

The FIT21 legislation Gottheimer advanced would shift oversight of large crypto markets in ways that critics, including fellow Democrats on his own committee, described as reducing consumer protections in a sector already marked by high-profile collapses and fraud cases.

New Jersey’s 5th District encompasses suburban communities in Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren counties. Many residents hold bank deposits and retirement accounts in the same financial institutions that funded Gottheimer’s campaigns and sought regulatory relief through the legislation he supported.

What You Can Do

Rep. Gottheimer’s office can be reached to ask where he stands on reinstating the Dodd-Frank inter-affiliate collateral requirement and whether he plans to create the blind trust he pledged in 2022.

Visit /take-action to find contact information for your representative, check your voter registration, and see what financial regulation bills are currently before the Financial Services Committee.