Members of Congress and their families would face stiff penalties for trading stocks under new legislation released Wednesday by a bipartisan group of senators.
The bill, introduced by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), would bar members of Congress from buying and selling stocks and certain other investments, and impose similar restrictions on lawmakers’ spouses and dependent children by 2027.
Members of Congress and the president and vice president would also have to divest from certain investments by 2027.
Lawmakers would face a fine worth their monthly salary or 10 percent of the value of each improper investment if they violated the new rules.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will vote to advance the legislation to the Senate floor on July 24, Peters, the committee’s chair, announced Wednesday.
“I believe that Americans deserve to have confidence that their federal elected officials are making decisions that are in the best interest of the American public and are not in the interest of any personal finances and financial decisions that they make,” Peters said.
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Lawmakers are already prohibited from using information gained from confidential briefings to make investments. And members must publicly disclose the stocks they buy and sell. But the penalty for such a violation is $200, hardly a fraction of the $174,000 salary that most members of Congress receive.
And lawmakers have been so active on the stock market that investment products have launched that allow ordinary investors to mimic the trades made by members of Congress.
Under Wednesday’s legislation, members of Congress could still invest in mutual funds or pooled securities investments such as exchange-traded funds, also known as ETFs.
“People have more and more access to sensitive nonpublic information when they’re in the government. It’s important to alleviate those conflicts of interest, but it doesn’t prevent them from being invested in the market,” said…
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