Ban Elected Officials from Trading Individual Stocks

For years, watchdog groups and the public have raised concerns about the personal trading activity by elected representatives. Members of Congress and the executive branch have unique and privileged access to information that can easily lead to insider trading, corruption, and influence on legislative votes. Now, bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the House and Senate are moving forward on legislation to ban elected officials from trading individual stocks.

• A bipartisan group in the House has introduced H.R. 5106, the Restore Trust in Congress Act. This bill combines previously introduced legislation into one consensus bill and bans members of Congress, their spouses and children from owning and trading individual stocks while in office. The bill does not affect members of the executive branch such as the President, Vice President, or Cabinet.

• In July, the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs committee passed S. 1498, now renamed to the HONEST Act. All Democrats and Josh Hawley (R-MO) supported the bill which bans members of Congress from trading or holding individual stocks. While this bill’s ban does include the President and Vice President, it includes a carve-out for Trump; the bill would only apply at the start of the next elected officials’ term.

Despite years of public outcry against the massive potential for self-dealing and corruption, congressional leadership has slow rolled any attempts pass meaningful reform. Demand your representatives finally pass strong, enforceable plans to restore the public’s trust in their elected officials.