A group of bipartisan senators on Wednesday unveiled legislation that would bar lawmakers and their spouses and dependent children from buying stocks and other covered investments and prevent congressional members from selling stocks 90 days after the bill is enacted.
It would also require the president and vice president to divest from all covered investments, starting in 2027.
“Members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we make federal policy and have extraordinary access to confidential information,” Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is leading a bipartisan push to pass the bill, dubbed the ETHICS Act, said in a statement. “We still have a long way to go to pass this bill, but today’s bipartisan announcement is a major step forward.”
Ossoff, D-Ga., along with Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced their legislative proposal on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee must first approve the bill before any floor action.
Peters, the panel’s chair, called the measure “a commonsense piece of legislation that helps maintain trust in this institution.”
Ossoff, who in 2021 put his own stock portfolio in a blind trust, has been leading efforts to ban stock trading by members of Congress.
The bill would not allow lawmakers to use a blind trust.
“We are all united behind the agreed framework and text,” Ossoff said. “Members of Congress should not be permitted to trade in stocks while in office. It’s a strong bill that fully achieves that objective.”
It’s uncertain whether House Republicans will take similar efforts.
“Quite a number of House Republicans have pledged to move a serious stock trading bill,” Hawley said. “The fact that the Senate is taking up one that is very serious. ... I hope that my counterparts in the House on the Republican side will look at this and say this is something that we need to get behind."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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