Two members of Congress – Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., and Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif. – disclose that they or their family members made the purchase SpaceX stock days after the company’s historic initial public offering, according to publicly accessible House financial documents.
Meuser recently disclosed that his dependent child bought between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in the company on June 15. According to the financial disclosure, it was the first time in several years that Meuser or any of his family members bought stock in the same company.
Cisneros disclosed June 18 purchases of between $1,001 and $15,000 in SpaceX stock.
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace and satellite company, went public on June 12 with a market capitalization of $2 trillion-plus.
A spokesman for Meuser did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
In a statement, Cisneros told CNBC that he does not personally manage his portfolio.
“My wife and I have been hiring outside financial advisors who are responsible for maintaining a diversified portfolio. We do not manage the day-to-day trading of our investment portfolio, and we have never recommended a trade while serving in Congress or the Department of Defense,” said Cisneros, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as undersecretary of defense on staff20.
“Furthermore, while serving in both the executive and legislative branches of government, I have been in compliance with all laws and regulations regarding stock trading and financial disclosure. I will continue to advocate for more ethical oversight of elected government officials and politically appointed officials regarding their financial positions,” Cisneros’ statement continued.
Members of Congress and their immediate family members are allowed to own and trade individually as long as they comply with disclosure laws and do not use confidential information obtained through their official positions. There is no evidence Meuser or Cisneros traded on non-public information or broke any law.
The STOCK Act requires lawmakers to disclose their transactions, their spouses and their children.
However, member committee assignments make the exchange politically sensitive. Meuser sits on the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over securities and exchanges, while Cisneros sits on the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Department of Defense, SpaceX’s biggest customer.
The filing is likely to be a tipping point for what will be financial disclosures in the coming weeks, ethics watchdogs previously told CNBC. Many expect dozens of people in Congress on both sides of the aisle to trade on SpaceX’s IPO.
SpaceX went public in June, raising nearly $75 billion in the largest IPO in history. Shares opened at $150 and quickly pushed the company’s market value past $2 billion, turning the listing into a public demand test for Musk and artificial intelligence.
Musk and his companies have become the most important players in Republican politics and federal contracting.
The IPO was the first shot in what could be a wave of massive public listings by private tech companies, some of which have been at the forefront of policy debates in Washington.
SpaceX shares closed at $162 on Thursday, up about 8% from their opening price of $150, but about 20% below their June 16 close of $201.80.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNBC previously found out that Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., one of the top House GOP leaders, had family investments that stand to benefit from SpaceX’s public exposure after her husband bought up to $250,000 in xAI before Musk folded the artificial intelligence company into SpaceX.
There is no evidence McClain was aware of recent government actions involving xAI or the trading of non-public information.
“Chairman McClain’s investment is public record,” Joe Buccino, communications director for the House Republican Conference, told CNBC in a statement in June. “They are made in accordance with all applicable House rules.”
CNBC did not identify any other members of Congress with relatively clear stakes in SpaceX or the expected tech IPOs of companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, though private sector holdings can be difficult to track.
Efforts to prevent members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks have been ongoing for years, but have repeatedly failed.
House Republican leaders vowed at the end of last year to bring down a bill that would prevent members from trading while in office. A similar Senate proposal passed out of committee in July 2025. Neither chamber has taken further action on the congressional trade ban.
