To amend chapter 131 of title 5, United States Code, to prohibit transactions involving certain financial instruments by Members of Congress.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill requires new subchapter banning Members of Congress and spouses from holding covered financial instruments including stocks, securities futures, and commodities, defines statutory definition of covered financial instruments with exemptions for diversified mutual funds, ETFs, Treasury bonds, and spouse employment compensation, and requires prohibition on holding, purchasing, or selling covered financial instruments with 180-day divestiture grace period and profit disgorgement requirement. It relies on compliance mandates, reporting requirements, and definition changes. The main policy areas are Finance.
Who Benefits and How
American public could face lower compliance burdens and U.S. Treasury could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Members of Congress would take on compliance duties, Spouses of Members of Congress would take on compliance duties, and Noncompliant Members of Congress could face higher costs.
Key Provisions
- Requires new subchapter banning Members of Congress and spouses from holding covered financial instruments including stocks, securities futures, and commodities.
- Defines statutory definition of covered financial instruments with exemptions for diversified mutual funds, ETFs, Treasury bonds, and spouse employment compensation.
- Requires prohibition on holding, purchasing, or selling covered financial instruments with 180-day divestiture grace period and profit disgorgement requirement.
- Requires annual written compliance certification by each Member of Congress published publicly on ethics committee website.
- Requires ethics committee enforcement authority including rule-making, extensions for good-faith divestiture, and civil fines of 10% of noncompliant holdings every 30 days.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill requires new subchapter banning Members of Congress and spouses from holding covered financial instruments including stocks, securities futures, and commodities, defines statutory definition of covered financial instruments with exemptions for diversified mutual funds, ETFs, Treasury bonds, and spouse employment compensation, and requires prohibition on holding, purchasing, or selling covered financial instruments with 180-day divestiture grace period and profit disgorgement requirement.
Key Policy Areas
Finance
Primary Purpose
The bill requires new subchapter banning Members of Congress and spouses from holding covered financial instruments including stocks, securities futures, and commodities, defines statutory definition of covered financial instruments with exemptions for diversified mutual funds, ETFs, Treasury bonds, and spouse employment compensation, and requires prohibition on holding, purchasing, or selling covered financial instruments with 180-day divestiture grace period and profit disgorgement requirement.
Policy Domains
Congressional Stock Trading Ban
Identified Gains
- American public
- U.S. Treasury
Identified Costs
- Members of Congress
- Spouses of Members of Congress
- Noncompliant Members of Congress
- Members of Congress with stock portfolios
- Government Accountability Office
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Alford introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Congressional ethics committees, Government Accountability Office, Members of Congress
Positive-direction: U.S. Treasury
Negative-direction: Congressional ethics committees, Government Accountability Office, Members of Congress, Members of Congress with stock portfolios, Noncompliant Members of Congress
American public, Spouses of Members of Congress
Positive-direction: American public
Negative-direction: Spouses of Members of Congress
Brokerage firms serving Members of Congress
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "gao"
- → Government Accountability Office (Comptroller General)
- "members"
- → Members of Congress and their spouses
- "ethics_committees"
- → Select Committee on Ethics (Senate) and Committee on Ethics (House)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Securities, security futures, commodities, and synthetic derivatives thereof; excludes diversified mutual funds, diversified ETFs, Treasury bills/notes/bonds, and spouse employment compensation
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology