GOP Sen. Ben Sasse re-introduces bill to ban lawmakers from trading stocks and becoming paid lobbyists after retiring

• Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska reintroduced a bill containing several ethics reforms.
• The bill bans lawmakers from trading stocks, as well as becoming paid lobbyists after retirement.

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is re-introducing a sweeping ethics reform package that includes banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

$4 a re-packaging of a $4 that the Nebraska Republican first put forward in 2018, would also ban lawmakers from acting as paid lobbyists after leaving Congress. The package also targets the executive branch, with a prohibition on immediate family members of cabinet members, the president, and vice president from soliciting donations from foreign sources and a requirement that both the president and vice president publicly disclose their tax returns.

In contrast to Sasse's previous set of proposals, the bill would also ban foreign nationals from contributing to ballot measure campaigns, a strange loophole in campaign finance law that was $4. Foreign nationals are otherwise prohibited from spending on American elections, but the commission determined that ballot measures technically don't count as elections under current law.

"People hate politics, and politicians have worked hard to earn that hate," Sasse said in a statement. "If Congress wants to rebuild some public trust, we ought to put some pretty simple rules on Washington."

Sasse's bills come amid broader public scrutiny of lawmakers' stock trading habits, as well as a recognition that $4, particularly the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act may be insufficient.

Lawmakers often have access to privileged information unavailable to the rest of the public, and can potentially move markets with their decisions. And $4 that anywhere between 67% and $4 supports banning lawmakers from trading stocks.

"This is going to hack off a whole bunch of Republicans and Democrats but, frankly, doing it in one fell swoop is the only way to do it – it's time to get everyone's goat," Sasse said in a statement.

Sasse's stock trading ban would not, however, apply to spouses, which $4 in any potential reforms, given that spouses presumably discuss personal finances with one another.

$4 found that at least $4 and $4 have violated the STOCK Act by filing to comply with the disclosure measures, along with documenting several instances where members' stock ownership creates potential conflicts of interest.

While some $4 since a spate of pandemic-related stock trading scandals in 2020, several others have introduced new proposals to ban the practice just in the last month, including $4.

After $4, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi $4 to consider imposing higher penalties for STOCK Act violations, and $4.

"If members want to do that, I'm okay with that," Pelosi said recently, referring to a stock trading ban.