U.S. senators from both parties announced on Wednesday that they had created a bill that would ban congressional stock trading, an issue so important that Blaze Media created a Blaze Originals documentary — entitled “Bought and Paid For: How Politicians Get Filthy Rich” — about it earlier this year to put pressure on federal lawmakers and keep our audience in the know.
While the STOCK Act, passed in 2012, technically requires members of Congress to be more transparent about their stock trades as well as those of their spouse, it has done little to curtail the seemingly rampant shady stock trades from members of both parties that “Bought and Paid For” exposed.
According to a University of Maryland poll, fully 85% of Americans want to ban stock trades for members of Congress.
Now, four senators — Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, and Gary Peters of Michigan and Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri — have developed new legislation with heftier penalties that may finally resolve the problem once and for all.
Their plan is called the ETHICS Act, and if passed, it would prevent members of Congress from buying or selling stock or similar investments beginning 90 days after the bill is signed into law. It would further prohibit congressional spouses and other members of their immediate family from purchasing stocks as of March 2027.
Violations of the law would result in a fine of either a month’s salary or 10% of each asset’s value, whichever is greater.
According to a University of Maryland poll, fully 85% of Americans want to ban stock trades for members of Congress. Between the countrywide consensus regarding the issue and the bipartisan nature of the legislation, supporters of the ETHICS Act are hopeful that it may in fact pass, despite the contentious election season and the failure of similar legislative efforts in the past.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is already scheduled to begin considering the bill on July 24.
Meanwhile, members of Blaze Media are already celebrating the bill as a major victory following the release of “Bought and Paid For” in April. James Poulos, host of “Bought and Paid For” as well as the editor at large of Blaze Media and the editorial director of its RETURN division, is particularly encouraged by this turn of events.
“Members of Congress can get rich on stock trades thanks to their special access to information ordinary Americans don’t have — and many do just that, because wrongdoing is so hard to prove in court and current congressional rules are so lax,” he told Blaze News.
“Americans across party lines agree this practice should be brought to an end, and cracking down boasts bipartisan support on the Hill. It’s heartening to see a new group of senators take a fresh swing at a solution that’s long overdue.”
The trailer for “Bought and Paid For” can be seen below. To view the entire 30-minute program and other Blaze Originals documentaries like it, click here to become a BlazeTV subscriber.
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