ap photo Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Feb. 3 in Washington. Pressure is building for Congress to pass legislation that would curtail lawmakers’ ability to speculate on the stock market.

WASHINGTON — Amid a steady drip of damaging headlines, pressure is building for Congress to pass legislation that would curtail lawmakers’ ability to speculate on the stock market.

Trading in Congress has long been criticized by government watchdogs, who say the access to nonpublic information creates a temptation for lawmakers to prioritize their own finances over the public good.

But public anger has mounted since the first tremors of the pandemic, when some lawmakers were caught buying and selling millions of dollars worth of stock after being warned about the coming disruption from the virus. The pandemic’s arrival tanked markets and caught many Americans by surprise.

Now, with November elections fast approaching and members of both parties embracing reform, congressional leaders are getting on the bandwagon, expressing their willingness to toughen the rules. After a spate of controversies over suspiciously timed trades and undisclosed transactions, few lawmakers are defending the status quo, raising hopes that a significant ethics package is within reach.

“This isn’t going to solve all of America’s problems. But it’s a substantive reform that three-fourths of the country supports,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is sponsoring a bill that would require lawmakers and their spouses to sell off stocks or place such assets in a blind trust. The Georgia Democrat beat Republican Sen. David Perdue last year in a race that turned largely on Perdue’s pandemic-era stock trading.

There’s reason for skepticism. Past efforts to tighten ethics rules have fallen short of lawmakers’ lofty declarations. And in the end, the task of writing ethics rules governing Congress is left to the lawmakers themselves, creating a conflict that often results in easily evaded restrictions.

But progress is apparent. A raft of bills have been introduced, some by lawmakers at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Senators are working on a compromise. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband is a prolific trader, is on board with the legislative push, though she has advocated a more targeted approach.

Pelosi supports strengthening an existing law, the Stock Act, which requires lawmakers to disclose their stock sales and purchases. She has also called for extending stock trading disclosure requirements to members of the judiciary, while stiffening penalties for members of Congress who flout the rules.

“It’s complicated,” Pelosi said last week. “What we’re trying to build is consensus.”

Her stance has evolved since December, when Pelosi reacted to a question about lawmaker trades by saying there is a “free market” that members of Congress “should be able to participate in.”

Past ethics reforms demonstrate the challenge ahead.

The Stock Act was signed into law in 2012. At the time, lawmakers and government watchdogs predicted that public disclosure would shame lawmakers out of actively buying and selling stock. That hasn’t happened. A decade later, trading continues apace and no one has been prosecuted under the law.

The same could be said for reforms enacted in the wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. A 2007 law that was intended to force more disclosure of lobbying activity instead created a new class of “shadow lobbyists” who work to influence public policy but don’t have to register as a lobbyist or disclose their activities.

“Both those bills certainly did not solve the actual problems themselves,” said Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for the good government group Public Citizen. He said the earlier laws were important, but added that “there is room for improvement.”