Before CHIPS vote, Kathy Manning made six-figure investment in chip companies

U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat representing the Triad area of North Carolina, is once again in the news for her stock trading, after making investments in chip companies the day before the July 28 U.S. House vote on the CHIPS Act. 

FOX Business picked up the story on Aug. 12 after investing site Unusual Whales discovered the information on Aug. 11 in new investment disclosures by Manning.  

“Manning thought she was right on the money with this one. She and her husband purchased up to $30,000 in Micron Technology stocks and up to $95,000 in Nvidia stocks just a day before the act passed,” said Taylor Mazock, the Republican National Committee’s North Carolina press secretary, in an Aug. 13 press release. “The CHIPS Act provides semiconductor facilities with subsidies and now a portion of that may end up right in Manning’s pocket.”

Micron is a Boise, Idaho-based chip manufacturer. Nvidia designs computer chips and is based in Santa Clara, California. Both are poised to benefit from the CHIP Act’s boosting of domestic chip manufacturing.

In response to FOX Business, Manning’s congressional office said the investments are not directly controlled by Manning or her husband but “are in accounts entirely controlled by third party managers.” 

The office continued, “Neither Congresswoman Manning nor her husband exercised, or attempted to exercise, any control or direction over any transactions executed within the accounts… Congresswoman Manning supported the CHIPS Act to maintain semiconductor chip manufacturing in the United States because it creates good-paying American jobs and protects national security.”

While the investment doesn’t appear to break any ethics laws, since the language of the bill was publicly available by that date, it struck many critics as another example of legislators getting wealthy off of bills they help to form and pass. 

Manning is already one of the wealthiest members of Congress and has come under fire already this year for keeping over $1 million in an account Cayman Islands, a popular tax have; and for reportedly failing, on 51 occasions, to report stock trades within the required 45-day window. 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, received similar blowback after her husband Paul also invested $5 million in Nvidia before the CHIPS vote.