Georgia U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is introducing legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress.
This week, Sen. Ossoff introduced the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, which will require all members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children to place their stocks into a blind trust or divest the holding – ensuring they cannot use inside information to influence their stock trades and make a profit.

This legislation was introduced in response to the overwhelming number of Georgians and Americans who support this policy, with 86% of Americans in favor of prohibiting stock-trading by members of Congress. 

Going above and beyond current Senate ethics rules, Sen. Ossoff fulfilled his pledge to put his own stock portfolio into a blind trust in 2021. The use of blind trusts by members of Congress was championed by former Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) to avoid conflicts of interest. 

According to Insider, Sen. Ossoff was one of only 10 sitting members of Congress last Congress to place his portfolio in a blind trust.  

“Members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we make Federal policy and have extraordinary access to confidential information,” Sen. Ossoff said. “Stock trading by members of Congress massively erodes public confidence in Congress with serious appearance of impropriety, which is why we should ban stock trading by members of Congress altogether.”

You can read the full Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act here.