Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK-04), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is a long-serving member whose wealth largely predates and stems from his ownership stake in the political consulting firm Cole, Hargrave, Snodgrass & Associates, which he co-founded before entering office. Public trackers show no record of an active individual-stock trading portfolio, and his roughly 2.2% lifetime missed-vote rate is near the House median. As Appropriations chair he draws heavy PAC and lobbyist contributions concentrated in defense and other federally funded sectors, which raises standard money-in-politics correlation concerns but is not evidence of quid pro quo. No documented allegations of campaign-fund personal use, family lobbying tied to his office, or net-worth enrichment beyond ordinary asset appreciation were found in available public records.
Public record
In Congress since
2003
Committees
Appropriations (Chair)
Missed votes, 119th Congress
1.2% (8 of 674; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$3.8M raised · 41% from PACs & committees · $2.6M cash on hand FEC ↗
The stock-trading ban
H.R. 7008 passage, Jul 22, 2026
Yes
Cosponsored a ban bill
None
H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases by members, spouses and dependents; it doesn't force sales of existing holdings. The Senate vote was on the version paired with the SAVE Act, which is why no Democrat voted yes. Full breakdown →
Disclosed stock trades
0trades since Jan 2025
0buys
0sells
0filed past 45 days
$0–$0disclosed value range
1 of 1 reports were filed on paper (scanned images) and aren't itemized here; they're linked from the official index.
No transactions parsed.
Amounts are the ranges members must report, not exact values. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade; "late" counts days past that deadline, measured to the filing date.
How the score breaks down
Stock self-trading
25% weight
0
No record of an active individual-stock trading portfolio. Congressional trade trackers (Quiver, Capitol Trades) maintain a page for Cole but show his disclosures dominated by funds and his consulting-firm partnership rather than frequent individual equity trades; no STOCK Act late-filing or suspicious-timing reports attributed to him (unlike OK colleague Kevin Hern). Scored 0 absent evidence of individual-stock trading.
Reported net worth rose from roughly $3.2M (2008) to about $9.4M (2024). A large share traces to his pre-office stake in Cole, Hargrave, Snodgrass & Associates, which is excluded from scoring as pre-office wealth. Growth appears broadly consistent with asset appreciation over a 16-year span rather than anomalous spikes, but the multi-fold increase warrants a modest, non-conclusive score.
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
45
CORRELATION, NOT PROOF. As Appropriations chair, Cole's funding is heavily PAC-driven (~45% of 2024-cycle receipts) with large defense and lobbyist contributions and significant AIPAC-aligned money (~$553K). His committee directs federal spending across these sectors, creating overlap between donor industries and his official portfolio, but no specific vote-for-dollars link is documented.
No public reporting or FEC complaint found alleging personal use of campaign or leadership-PAC funds by Cole. General watchdog concern about lax leadership-PAC oversight exists industry-wide but is not specific to him. Scored 0 absent member-specific evidence.
Typical of a senior appropriator, Cole has connections to K Street: a former committee deputy chairman, Dan Mattoon, became a prominent GOP lobbyist, and LegiStorm tracks revolving-door staff. No documented family member lobbying his office or contracts tied to his position were found. Low score reflects ordinary staff-to-lobbyist flow rather than evidence of self-dealing.
Strong attendance: missed 326 of 15,088 roll-call votes (2.2%) from 2003 to June 2026, near the House median of 2.1%. As Appropriations chair he fundraises substantially, but there is no pattern of missing votes to fundraise or documented paid speeches. Low score.
Sources behind this score: 1 data aggregator · 2 news reporting · 5 reference database · 1 official record. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 1 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →
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