Senators on Wednesday unveiled a bipartisan plan to ban the president, vice president and members of Congress from buying stocks and a wide range of other financial assets.
The proposal from Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is scheduled to be considered at a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in late July, Ossoff’s office announced. Wednesday Release.
“While they set federal policy and have special access to classified information, members of Congress should not be trading on the stock market,” Ossoff said in a statement. “We still have a long way to go to pass this legislation, but today’s bipartisan announcement is a major step forward.”
The new bill would ban lawmakers from buying stocks or other financial assets, and would also bar them from selling them for 90 days after the bill is enacted. Starting in 2027, the ban would apply to spouses and dependents, as well as the president and vice president.
Investments would include securities, commodities, futures, options, trusts and other similar holdings, according to a summary of the bill provided by Ossoff’s office.
Penalties for failure to comply with the asset sale requirements would exceed the government employee’s monthly salary or 10 percent of the value of each asset, whichever is greater.
Stock trading by both elected and unelected government officials has drawn increasing attention from ethics watchdogs and other groups concerned about federal employees profiting from insider information.
The Wall Street Journal wins 2023 Pulitzer Prizes A long-running series on regulators who engaged in stock trading during the pandemic, buying and selling shares of companies under their direct regulatory authority.
Wednesday’s agreement came in the form of Sen. Merkley’s replacement amendment to the Ethics Act of 2023, which was proposed by Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), as well as having support primarily from Democrats.
The proposal would have required lawmakers to place their financial assets in a blind trust upon taking office and would have imposed fines of up to $10,000 or 1% of the value of their assets for any violation of trust communications rules.
“The expectation is that when people come to Congress, whether it’s the Senate or the House, they’re going to be focused on their jobs and what they want to do, not on day trading,” Hawley said. “Savings are great, but if members of Congress want to save, they can put it in a savings account, they can put it in a mutual fund. My view is they don’t have to hold individual stocks.”
