Today, CREW and 9 groups, including Campaign Legal Center, Issue One and Project on Government Oversight, sent a letter urging members of the House of Representatives to cosponsor the Restore Trust in Congress Act, a comprehensive congressional stock trading ban backed by lawmakers from both parties, as well as urging the Committee on House Administration to hold a markup on the bill.

Congress is in the grip of a growing crisis in which public confidence in the institution is being eroded by members of Congress making seemingly problematic stock trades or owning stock in companies they oversee or to which they appropriate taxpayer dollars. Despite broad, cross-partisan public support for a congressional stock trading ban, Congress has been unable to pass legislation that confronts these widespread conflicts of interest.  

In September,  Reps. Chip Roy and Seth Magaziner united a bipartisan group of House members around a proposal to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks, called the Restore Trust in Congress Act. This legislation would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from trading and owning individual stocks, bonds, and other securities. It is now cosponsored by nearly 100 Democratic and Republican members of the House.

There is no reason for the House to delay this important reform. Earlier this year, the House Freedom Caucus advocated for banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks as one of their policy priorities in a letter to their Republican colleagues. More recently, Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries each publicly expressed support for a congressional stock trading ban.

Given the deterioration of public trust in our government institutions, the coalition groups urge the House to swiftly move forward with the Restore Trust in Congress Act ensuring that members of Congress act not for their personal financial gain but for the interests of the American public. 

Read the letter.

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