Senators push stock trading ban to prevent lawmakers from profiting from insider knowledge

A bipartisan group of senators announced a deal Wednesday on a congressional stock trading ban aimed at preventing members from profiting from insider knowledge.

Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced their legislative proposal, dubbed the ETHICS Act, on Capitol Hill.

“This is a very tough bill,” Hawley told reporters at a news conference to announce the legislation. 

Peters, the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which first must approve the bill before any floor action, called the measure “a commonsense piece of legislation that helps maintain trust in this institution.”

The proposed legislation would bar lawmakers from buying stocks and other covered investments and prevent members from selling stocks 90 days after the bill is enacted, according to a background bill obtained by NBC News. Members’ spouses and dependent children would also be banned from trading stocks starting in March 2027.

The legislation also would require lawmakers, as well as the president and the vice president, to divest from all covered investments starting in 2027.

The penalties for violations would be either the officials’ monthly salaries or 10% of the value of the assets in violation of the law, whichever is greater.

Ossoff has pushed for similar legislation since he joined the Senate in 2021, and he placed his own stock portfolio into a blind trust that year.

The new bill would not allow lawmakers and their spouses to use blind trusts.

“We are all united behind the agreed framework and text,” Ossoff said when he was asked about his own investments should the bill become law. “Members of Congress should not be permitted to trade in stocks while in office. It’s a strong bill that fully achieves that objective.”

The Homeland Security Committee is expected to mark up the legislation July 24.

There have been similar bipartisan efforts in the House, well. Hawley told reporters that he hopes the Republican-led chamber will take up their legislation.

“Quite a number of House Republicans have pledged to move a serious stock trading bill,” he said, adding: “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.”