Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Representative Greg Stanton joined 44 of his colleagues from both sides of the aisle in reintroducing the bipartisan TRUST in Congress Act, a bill that would effectively ban Members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from trading individual stocks.

The Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act would reduce opportunities for insider trading by requiring Members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children to either divest from individual stock holdings or move their investments into a qualified blind trust during their entire tenure in Congress. This will prevent Members of Congress from profiting off of their positions through their access to nonpublic information.

“Americans need to know their elected leaders in Washington are making decisions based on what’s best for our country, not their own stock portfolios,” Stanton said. “Our common-sense, bipartisan legislation will put an end to corrupt insider trading and bring some transparency and integrity back to Congress.”

The TRUST in Congress Act will:

• Require all current Members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children to divest from certain investment assets or place them into a qualified blind trust within 180 days after the enactment of this legislation. New Members of Congress, and their spouses and dependent children, would be required to place covered investments into a qualified blind trust within 90 days of assuming office. Affected individuals can remove assets from the blind trust 180 days after the Member leaves Congress.
• Require all Members to either 1) certify to the Clerk of the House of Representatives or the Secretary of the Senate that they have established a blind trust to include covered investments or 2) certify to the Clerk or the Secretary that they do not own any covered investments. The status of these certifications would be made publicly available by the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate.
• The requirement would apply to the following types of investments: a security (including, but not limited to stocks and bonds), commodity, future, or any comparable economic interest acquired through synthetic means such as the use of a derivative.

The TRUST in Congress Act is endorsed by several key advocacy and government accountability organizations across the political spectrum, including Public Citizen, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), End Citizens United (ECU) Action Fund, CREW, Protect Democracy, Americans for Prosperity, National Taxpayers Union, Fix the Court, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Government Accountability Project, and Issue One.

Bill text is available here.