Co-chairs of Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus praise advancement of bipartisan proposal banning members of Congress from trading stocks

Last week, Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) introduced the bipartisan ETHICS Act, a framework – built off of a proposal from Sen. Merkley – that would ban members of Congress, the president, and vice president from holding, buying, or selling stocks. This bipartisan proposal will require members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children to divest all covered investments, increasing congressional transparency. It will also specify enforcement mechanisms for these restrictions, which will include clear and deliberate penalties for violations.

In reaction to today’s key markup by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Issue One released the following statement from Amb. Tim Roemer (D-IN) and Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), two former members of Congress and co-chairs of Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus:

“American citizens deserve to know that their members of Congress are working specifically for them, not on supplementing their own personal financial portfolios. Yet when our elected representatives trade individual stocks while in office, it creates the appearance that they are using insider knowledge for their own personal profit. This erodes the public’s trust, which is why Congress should prohibit members from trading individual stocks while in office. This is a commonsense ethics reform that will reduce the appearance of corruption and help restore the public’s trust.

“We applaud Senators Hawley, Merkley, Ossoff, and Peters for their collaboration and leadership. The ETHICS Act will help ensure that our elected representatives focus on making decisions for the benefit of their constituents, not for financial gain.

“It’s time to put ethics above financial or personal interests. Congress should pass this bipartisan bill into law.”