In talking with people, one of the most bipartisan issues people support involves some sort of ban on stock trading by government officials. This week, supporters of good government got some good news as the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. But powerful forces in Washington DC are poised to block this reform. It won’t pass without you.
The bill is the “Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act. It’s Senate Bill 1498. And here’s what it does: “(1) Ban Members of Congress, the President, and Vice President from buying covered assets immediately after enactment and from selling covered assets 90 days after enactment. Covered assets include securities, commodities, futures, options, trusts, and other comparable holdings, (2) Require elected officials, their spouses, and dependent children to divest covered assets beginning at the start of their next term in office. (3) Increase penalties for violations of STOCK Act disclosure requirements from $200 to $500.” This doesn’t sound too objectionable, right? It has huge popular support among the average Americans like you and me. “Overwhelming bipartisan majorities favor prohibiting stock-trading in individual companies by Members of Congress (86%, Republicans 87%, Democrats 88%, independents 81%), as well as the President, Vice President, and Supreme Court Justices (87%, Republicans 87%, Democrats 90%, independents 82%).” That poll was taken by the Program for Public Consultation by the University of Maryland.
I can see why Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley chose to back it, along with Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff. It has strong supporters in the House. But anything banning legislative and executive branch stock trading and moving certain assets is going to anger some powerful people in Washington, DC. Senator Hawley was attacked for supporting the HONEST Act, even by some in his own party. Others in Congress are opposing the HONEST Act too, according to Emily Brooks with The Hill.
As the Georgia Recorder wrote “Ossoff’s work on the issue can be traced back to the 2020
election when both GOP Senate candidates in Georgia were the focus of controversies over their stock trading activities. But the examples aren’t limited to one party, and the support for a ban on stock trading is coming from both sides of the aisle.”
And Fox Business reported “Whether the bill actually makes it to the Senate floor is up in the air, given that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., signaled that with only one Republican supporting it, he might not put it up for a vote.” But Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna “pledged to file a discharge petition to try and force a vote on a bill to ban stock trading in the House,” according to Mychael Schnell with The Hill. So now the ball’s in your court, to try and pressure your member of Congress for reform.
In other words, if you don’t want members of the legislative, executive and judicial branch to benefit financially from the bills they craft, the policies they make, and the rulings they make, then you need to take action. Got to Find Your Member with Congress.gov, and send them a message to support S-1498 or the HONEST Act, in both the House and Senate.
Let your legislators know you support this bipartisan bill, which got out of the committee 8-4.
Without your support, we’ll see rich members of Congress get richer, usually legally, with votes cast or orders given with an eye to the stock market performance, unless you back this reform.
Don’t listen to the excuses out of Washington and the partisan sniping; 80%-90% of Americans back this for a reason. You have no excuse if you stay silent.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia.
His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is
JohnTures2.
