Congressional members and their spouses would be banned from trading stocks under legislation proposed on Monday by U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA).
“The public should never have to question whether their elected officials are serving the public or their own portfolios,” Rep. Bresnahan said. “This legislation allows for new levels of transparency and is a safeguard to ensure Washington works for the people.”
The congressman sponsored the Transparency in Representation through Uniform Stock Trading Ban (TRUST) Act, H.R. 3182, which would go into effect at the start of the 120th Congress in January 2027.
“I am introducing the TRUST Act to restore the integrity Americans expect and deserve from their government,” said Rep. Bresnahan, who currently is working with the U.S. House Ethics Committee to move his personal holdings into a blind trust in an effort to comply with his new bill, which would not apply to covered financial instruments held in a qualified blind trust, according to a bill summary provided by his office.
“Members of Congress should not be allowed to profit off the information they are entrusted with — this is a belief I have held since before taking office, and this belief has not changed,” the congressman said. “I have never traded my own stocks, but I want to guarantee accountability to my constituents. I want the people I represent to trust that I am in Congress to serve them, and them alone.”
Specifically, H.R. 3182 would require that, upon assuming office, members and their spouses may not purchase or sell covered financial instruments, including a security, security future, commodity, and other comparable economic interests (derivative, options, warrants, etc.), and that they would only be allowed to purchase, hold, and sell diversified mutual funds, diversified ETFs, investments in the Thrift Savings Plan, and U.S. Treasuries.
Members who purchase or sell a covered financial instrument while in office could be fined and face penalties under an enacted bill, the summary says.
Additionally, H.R. 3182 would not require members and their spouses to divest of existing covered financial instruments, and any covered financial instrument a member and their spouse own upon assuming office would be grandfathered in.