Prohibit members of Congress, their staff, and certain executive branch officials from buying or selling individual stocks while in office.
• Scope: Extend the ban to immediate family members (spouses, children) to close loopholes.
• Blind Trusts: Mandate that officials’ investments be placed in blind trusts or diversified mutual funds/ETFs, managed by an independent third party, during their term.
• Cooling-Off Period: Add a 1-2 year post-office ban on trading individual stocks to prevent delayed profiteering from their influence.
• Enforcement:
• Require real-time disclosure of all financial holdings and transactions, monitored by an independent ethics body (e.g., an expanded Office of Government Ethics).
• Penalties: Heavy fines (e.g., 10x the profit made), jail time (5-10 years for willful violations), and forfeiture of office.
• Critics might argue this restricts “private property rights” under the Fifth Amendment. Counter this by emphasizing it’s a condition of public service, not a blanket ban—similar to existing ethics rules (e.g., conflict-of-interest laws).
• Public Support: Highlight cases like lawmakers profiting from COVID-19 briefings in 2020 (e.g., Sen. Richard Burr’s stock sales). Polls show 70-80% of Americans support banning congressional stock trading (e.g., 2022 YouGov data).
• Precedent: Point to the STOCK Act (2012), which already bans insider trading based on nonpublic info but lacks teeth. Your proposal strengthens it.