Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act

Key Points

• This bill requires Members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children to either sell their individual stocks and commodities or put them into a 'blind trust.' A blind trust is a setup where a professional manager makes all the investment decisions, and the owner is not allowed to know what is being bought or sold.
• The rule applies to all current and future members of the House and Senate. Lawmakers would have 120 days after the law passes to comply. New members joining Congress later would also have 120 days from their start date to move their investments into a trust or sell them.
• The goal of this policy is to prevent 'insider trading' and conflicts of interest. Because lawmakers often have access to private information about companies and the economy, these rules ensure they cannot use that information to make money for themselves or their families.
• Lawmakers would still be allowed to own certain types of investments that are considered lower risk for conflicts. These include diversified mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and U.S. Treasury bonds, as these do not focus on a single company or industry.
• If a lawmaker fails to follow these rules, they will face significant fines. The penalty for not complying is a monthly fine equal to one full month of the lawmaker's government salary for as long as they remain out of compliance.
• To ensure honesty, government ethics offices would be required to post information online for the public to see. This includes copies of trust agreements and lists of assets that were put into the trusts, though the specific daily trades made by the manager would remain hidden from the lawmaker.

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