Bipartisan senate bill would ban government officials from stock trades

A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators on Wednesday introduced a bill that would ban stock trading by federal officials including members of Congress, whose median net worth is around eight times greater than the median U.S. household's.

The Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act, introduced by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), would bar federal lawmakers, senior executive branch officials, their spouses, and dependents from owning or trading stocks.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant. It is critical that the American people know that their elected leaders are putting the public first—not looking for ways to line their own pockets," Gillibrand said in a statement. "This bill is the most substantive bipartisan effort to date and I'm going to work hard alongside Sen. Hawley to get it signed into law."

Hawley asserted that "politicians and civil servants shouldn't spend their time day-trading and trying to make a profit at the expense of the American public, but that's exactly what so many are doing."

The proposed legislation would impose penalties and fines for executive branch stock trading, mandate reporting of federal benefits, boost transparency in financial disclosures, and increase transaction reporting penalties under the Stop Trading Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

Enacted in 2012, the STOCK Act requires members of Congress to file annual financial disclosures in order to identify and take action when government officials use their positions of influence for personal gain. However, critics have long called the law largely toothless, while demanding more stringent safeguards against self-dealing by members of Congress.

Gillibrand and Hawley's bill is the latest in a series of bills that would ban members of Congress and their families from owning or trading shares, including the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust in Congress (TRUST) Act, the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, and the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act.

The senators said in a statement that 1 in 3 members of Congress—whose median net worth according to OpenSecrets was just over $1 million in 2020, compared with $121,700 for the median U.S. household—traded stocks between 2019-21. They also noted that 1 in 7 lawmakers violated the STOCK Act by not properly disclosing trades, while more than 3,700 transactions during the aforementioned two-year period potentially posed conflicts of interest.

On average, the stock portfolios of congressional lawmakers outperformed the S&P 500 by 17.5%, according to the senators.

Over 85% of U.S. voters from across the political spectrum support banning congressional lawmakers from trading stocks, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.