Your Help Is Needed For A Bipartisan Bill Banning Certain Government Stock Trades

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.