Both sit on committees with sway over the aerospace firm or the agencies that oversee it
Two members of the US Congress reported buying SpaceX stock within days of the company's record public debut.
Both hold committee seats that touch either the aerospace firm or the agencies overseeing it, according to publicly accessible House financial documents reviewed by CNBC.
Dan Meuser, a Pennsylvania Republican, disclosed that his dependent child bought between US$15,001 and US$50,000 of SpaceX stock on June 15.
The filing marked the first time in several years that Meuser or a family member had purchased shares in an individual company, House disclosures show.
Gil Cisneros, a California Democrat, reported a June 18 purchase of between US$1,001 and US$15,000 in the same stock.
Cisneros said he does not personally handle his investments, relying instead on outside advisers with "a fiduciary responsibility to maintain a diverse portfolio."
He and his wife have never managed the day-to-day trading or suggested a trade while he served in Congress or at the Department of Defense, he told CNBC in a statement.
Cisneros, whom President Joe Biden appointed as under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness in 2021, added that he has complied with all trading and disclosure rules and would keep pushing for stronger ethics oversight of elected and appointed officials.
A spokesperson for Meuser did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to CNBC, and SpaceX also did not respond.
The committee assignments give the trades a political edge.
Meuser sits on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees securities and exchanges, while Cisneros serves on the House Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Defense Department, a major SpaceX customer.
Members of Congress and their immediate families may own and trade individual stocks provided they follow disclosure rules and do not act on confidential information obtained through their positions.
The outlet reported no evidence that either lawmaker traded on nonpublic information or broke any law.
The STOCK Act requires lawmakers to disclose transactions by themselves, their spouses and dependent children.
More filings are likely in the coming weeks, ethics watchdogs have told CNBC, with members of both parties expected to have bought into the offering.
SpaceX, the aerospace and satellite company controlled by Elon Musk, went public on June 12, raising roughly US$75bn in what CNBC described as the largest IPO on record.
Shares opened at US$150 and pushed the company's market value past US$2tn, turning the listing into a gauge of investor appetite for Musk and artificial intelligence.
The stock closed at US$162 on Thursday, up about 8 percent from its opening price but roughly 20 percent below its June 16 closing high of US$201.80, the network reported.
Anthropic has confidentially filed for a US IPO and OpenAI has followed, targeting a valuation that could reach US$1tn, CNBC said, pointing to a possible wave of large technology listings.
The disclosures follow earlier scrutiny of Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, the fourth-ranking House Republican and chair of the House Republican Conference, whose husband bought as much as US$250,000 in Musk's AI firm xAI before it was folded into SpaceX in February.
CNBC reported that if the stake converted into SpaceX shares, the investment could show a paper gain of up to US$150,000, close to a full year of McClain's US$174,000 congressional salary.
Joe Buccino, the House Republican Conference communications director, told CNBC that McClain's investments are a matter of public record.
They "have been made in line with all House and applicable laws," he said.
The network found no evidence that McClain knew of the Pentagon's later moves to integrate xAI's Grok models, or that she traded on nonpublic information, and she holds no committee seats overseeing defence or technology.
She does sit on the Financial Services Committee, and Capitol Trades, which tracks congressional disclosures, lists her household with 1,443 trades over three years, more than about 98 percent of politicians in its database.
NOTUS reported that McClain disclosed between US$360,000 and US$900,000 in her husband's trades months late, a second STOCK Act breach in the same year, according to CNBC.
Those late filings have added momentum to a bipartisan push to bar lawmakers and their families from trading individual stocks.
House Republican leaders pledged late last year to bring such a bill to the floor, and a Senate proposal cleared committee in July 2025, but neither chamber has acted since, the outlet reported.
