Over the last few years, proposals to ban stock trading among top federal politicians have repeatedly gathered momentum, only to lose it again and fail to go anywhere. Most of those proposals, including one that may be forced up for a vote this fall, focus on preventing members of Congress from trading stocks, responding to worries that they’re acting on inside information when they do so.
Senator Andy Kim, though, wants to go much further. Continuing a crusade he began back when he was a member of the House, the senator today reintroduced the Restoring Trust in Public Servants Act, a remarkably wide-ranging bill that would prohibit owning and trading stocks across all branches of government.
If enacted, members of Congress and their families, congressional staff, presidents and vice presidents, federal political appointees, senior executive branch officials, and federal judges would all be banned from ownership of publicly traded stocks or cryptocurrencies; the latter is especially relevant in light of President Donald Trump’s heavy financial involvement in the cryptocurrency world.
The bill would also prevent members of Congress from earning outside incomes while in office, and create a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress (currently, former House members are barred from lobbying for one year, and former senators are barred for two).
Just as it was when Kim introduced it in the House, the bill is a quixotic effort that’s unlikely to seriously gather steam. Congress hasn’t even been able to agree on far less dramatic stock trading bans after years of negotiations, and Kim’s bill didn’t draw a single co-sponsor during the 117th and 118th Congresses.
The senator, however, argued that his ideas are ones supported by the American people – and public polling on the issue, which has found large majorities receptive to stock-trading bans and stricter lobbying limitations, seems to back up his claim.
“Trust is the scarcest resource that we have right now, and one our democracy cannot go without,” said Kim, who won his current office last year after a campaign centered around corruption in politics. “With a single standard against corruption and conflicts of interest, I believe we can restore the sacred trust between government officials and the people they are there to serve and take an essential step toward healing our country.”
