STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A bipartisan effort across both chambers of Congress is seeking to ban congressional officials and their families from purchasing and owning stocks.
In the Senate, the push is being led by New York’s own Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Florida’s Republican Sen. Ashley Moody. In the House of Representatives, Texas’ Republican Congressmember Chip Roy and Rhode Island’s Democratic Congressmember Seth Magaziner are introducing “companion legislation.”
The Restore Trust in Congress Act would prevent Congressional members, their spouses, their trustees, or their dependent children “from owning, buying, and selling individual stocks and certain other financial assets, including securities, commodities, and futures,” according to a written statement.
The only proposed exceptions are mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and bonds on the municipal, state and U.S. Treasury level.
Those types of funds are considered diversified and broadly held.
“It is fundamental to our Republic that members of Congress are focused on our nation and its citizens’ well-being, not how they may financially profit from their positions,” Gillibrand and Moody said in the statement. “That is why we are proud to introduce this commonsense bill to ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks. We will continue to fight tirelessly to make sure it becomes law.”
Should the act become law, officials would have six months to separate their assets. Afterwards, new elects would need to divest within 90 days of their official appointment.
If an official violates the law, they would be fined 10% of the value, and “any profits from the transaction be disgorged to the U.S. Treasury.”
This comes 14 years after Gillibrand “led the passage” of the STOCK Act, which “bars members of Congress from using insider information to buy and sell stocks.”