No Stock Act
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 No Stock Act bans Members of Congress, the President, Vice President, Supreme Court justices, Federal Reserve officials, and their spouses and dependent children from owning or trading individual stocks, securities, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and other financial assets. It aims to eliminate conflicts of interest that arise when government officials can profit from their policy decisions.
Who Benefits and How
The general public benefits from reduced conflicts of interest in government decision-making. Mutual fund and ETF managers benefit as covered officials must shift their investments to these diversified funds, which remain permitted. Government ethics advocates benefit from stronger enforcement mechanisms and transparency requirements.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Members of Congress, the President, Vice President, Supreme Court justices, Federal Reserve officials, and their families must divest their individual stock holdings within 120 days. They face ongoing restrictions on trading and cannot serve on corporate boards. Individual stock brokerages and cryptocurrency exchanges lose these customers. Ethics offices face increased administrative burden for compliance monitoring and enforcement.
Key Provisions
- Prohibits all covered individuals from holding, buying, selling, or transacting in stocks, securities, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and other covered financial interests
- Requires divestiture of existing holdings within 120 days (with extensions up to 270 days total)
- Bans covered individuals from serving on for-profit corporate boards
- Exempts diversified mutual funds, ETFs, Treasury securities, spousal employer stock, and regulated stablecoins
- Establishes minimum fine of 10% of the value of any violation
- Requires public disclosure of all extension requests and decisions by ethics offices
- Applies to interests held in trusts, including blind trusts
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Prohibits Members of Congress, the President, Vice President, Supreme Court justices, Federal Reserve officials, and their spouses and dependent children from holding, buying, selling, or transacting in individual stocks, securities, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and other covered financial interests.
Who Benefits
- General public (reduced conflicts of interest in government)
- Government ethics advocates
- Diversified investment fund managers (mutual funds, ETFs)
Who Bears Costs
- Members of Congress and their families (must divest individual holdings)
- President, Vice President, and families
- Supreme Court justices and families
Key Policy Areas
Government Ethics, Financial Regulation, Congressional Operations, Judicial Ethics, Federal Reserve Oversight
Primary Purpose
Prohibits Members of Congress, the President, Vice President, Supreme Court justices, Federal Reserve officials, and their spouses and dependent children from holding, buying, selling, or transacting in individual stocks, securities, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and other covered financial interests.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Strengthen government ethics by banning stock trading by senior federal officials and their immediate family members to eliminate conflicts of interest"
Identified Gains
- General public (reduced conflicts of interest in government)
- Government ethics advocates
- Diversified investment fund managers (mutual funds, ETFs)
- Treasury securities market
Identified Costs
- Members of Congress and their families (must divest individual holdings)
- President, Vice President, and families
- Supreme Court justices and families
- Federal Reserve Board members and bank presidents
- Individual stock brokers serving covered officials
- Cryptocurrency exchanges serving covered officials
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeRead twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Covered officials (Congress, President, VP, judiciary, Fed), Covered officials who violate the ban, Covered officials with existing stock portfolios
Diversified mutual fund and ETF managers, Diversified mutual fund managers, Federal Reserve Board members and bank presidents/VPs
Positive-direction: Diversified mutual fund and ETF managers, Diversified mutual fund managers, Treasury securities market
Negative-direction: Federal Reserve Board members and bank presidents/VPs, Federal Reserve officials, Individual stock brokerages
General public (deterrence benefit), General public (reduced conflicts of interest), General public and watchdog organizations
Financial advisors specializing in divestiture
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "covered_individual"
- → Members of Congress, President, Vice President, Supreme Court justices, Federal Reserve Board members and bank presidents/VPs, and their spouses and dependent children
- "supervising_ethics_office"
- → The ethics office with jurisdiction over each covered individual (e.g., congressional ethics committees for Members, Office of Government Ethics for executive branch, Judicial Conference for judiciary)
Note: The supervising ethics office varies by branch: congressional ethics committees for Members of Congress, Office of Government Ethics for President/VP and executive branch, Judicial Conference for Supreme Court justices, and Inspector General of Federal Reserve Board for Fed officials.
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Has the meaning given in section 1a of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1a)
Any investment in: (1) a security, (2) a future, (3) a commodity, or (4) a cryptocurrency, meme coin, token, NFT, or other digital asset sold for remuneration; also includes synthetic economic interests via derivatives. EXCLUDES: diversified investment funds (mutual funds), spousal employer compensation/stock, US Treasury bills/notes/bonds, and payment stablecoins under GENIUS Act.
Members of Congress, President, Vice President, Chief Justice, Associate Justices of Supreme Court, Federal Reserve Board members, Federal Reserve bank presidents/VPs, and spouses and dependent children of all these individuals.
An individual under age 19 who is a dependent of a covered official under section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code.
A security future as defined in Securities Exchange Act, or any contract for sale of a commodity for future delivery.
The ethics office with jurisdiction over each covered individual, as defined in section 13101.
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