[throwawayboise]

They aren't all extremely wealthy. The powerful committee leaders, majority and minority leaders, etc. generally are because they are the ones who choose which issues will make it to general debate and vote, so they are the ones who have the ability to influence markets.

Some random young representative from the middle of nowhere has almost no influence in congress. It takes years and powerful backers to develop that. Part of the argument for term limits is to prevent people from making a career out of being a representative or senator, which is what you need to do accumulate power.