I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 253
To amend title 5, United States Code, to restrict trading and ownership
of certain financial instruments by Members of Congress and their
spouses and dependents, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2025
Mr. F
ITZPATRICK(for himself, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. MILLS, and Mr.
K
RISHNAMOORTHI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to restrict trading
and ownership of certain financial instruments by Mem-
bers of Congress and their spouses and dependents, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bipartisan Restoring 4
Faith in Government Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF CONGRESSIONAL OWNERSHIP OF 1
FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 131 of title 5, United 3
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘SUBCHAPTER IV—PROHIBITION ON CONGRES-6
SIONAL OWNERSHIP OF FINANCIAL IN-7
VESTMENTS 8
‘‘§ 13151. Definitions 9
‘‘In this subchapter: 10
‘‘(1) C
OVERED FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT .—The 11
term ‘covered financial instrument’ means— 12
‘‘(A) any investment in— 13
‘‘(i) a security (as defined in section 14
3(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 15
1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a))); 16
‘‘(ii) a security future (as defined in 17
section 3(a) of the Securities Exchange Act 18
of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a))); or 19
‘‘(iii) a commodity (as defined in sec-20
tion 1a of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 21
U.S.C. 1a)); and 22
‘‘(B) any economic interest comparable to 23
an interest described in subclause (I) that is ac-24
quired through synthetic means, such as the 25
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use of a derivative, including an option, war-1
rant, or other similar means. 2
‘‘(2) C
OVERED INDIVIDUAL .—The term ‘cov-3
ered individual’ means any of the following: 4
‘‘(A) A Member of Congress. 5
‘‘(B) The spouse of a Member of Congress. 6
‘‘(C) The dependent of a Member of Con-7
gress. 8
‘‘(3) D
EPENDENT.—The term ‘dependent’ has 9
the meaning given that term in section 13101. 10
‘‘(4) M
EMBER OF CONGRESS .—The term ‘Mem-11
ber of Congress’ has the meaning given that term in 12
section 13101. 13
‘‘(5) Q
UALIFIED BLIND TRUST .—The term 14
‘qualified blind trust’ has the meaning given that 15
term in section 13104(f)(3). 16
‘‘(6) S
UPERVISING ETHICS OFFICE .—The term 17
‘supervising ethics office’ has the meaning given that 18
term in section 13101. 19
‘‘§ 13152. Limitation on owning or trading certain as-20
sets 21
‘‘(a) R
EQUIREMENT.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in this 23
section, no covered individual may own or trade a 24
covered financial instrument. 25
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‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—Nothing in this subchapter 1
shall be construed to prevent a covered individual 2
from owning or trading— 3
‘‘(A) a widely held investment fund (as 4
that term is described in section 13104(f)(8)) 5
that is registered as a management company 6
under the Investment Company Act, as amend-7
ed (15 U.S.C. 80a–1 et seq.); 8
‘‘(B) a United States Treasury bill, note, 9
or bond; 10
‘‘(C) any bond issued by a State or local 11
government; or 12
‘‘(D) any investment under the Thrift Sav-13
ings Plan. 14
‘‘(b) C
OMPLIANCE.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—To comply with the re-16
quirement under subsection (a), a covered individual 17
shall divest of a covered financial instrument 18
through sale or placement in a qualified blind trust 19
in accordance with subsection (c). 20
‘‘(2) A
SSETS ACQUIRED THROUGH SPECIAL CIR -21
CUMSTANCES.—In the event that a covered indi-22
vidual acquires a covered financial instrument after 23
the date of enactment of the Bipartisan Restoring 24
Faith in Government Act other than by purchase, 25
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the covered individual shall have 90 days from the 1
date on which such individual received such instru-2
ment to divest of such instrument through any 3
means provided under paragraph (1). 4
‘‘(c) T
IMEPERIOD FORCOMPLIANCE.— 5
‘‘(1) C
OVERED INDIVIDUALS AS OF DATE OF 6
ENACTMENT.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An individual who is a 8
covered individual as of the date of enactment 9
of Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government 10
Act shall have 90 days following the date of en-11
actment of such Act to divest of such instru-12
ment through any means provided under sub-13
section (b)(1). 14
‘‘(B) S
PECIAL RULE FOR SPOUSES .—A 15
covered individual who is a spouse of a Member 16
of Congress and who receives any financial in-17
strument as compensation for their primary em-18
ployment shall divest of such financial instru-19
ment not later than 90 days after the date that 20
the spouse is contractually permitted to sell the 21
covered investment. 22
‘‘(2) C
OVERED INDIVIDUALS AFTER DATE OF 23
ENACTMENT.—An individual who becomes a covered 24
individual after the date of enactment of the Bipar-25
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tisan Restoring Faith in Government Act shall have 1
90 days from the date on which such individual be-2
comes a covered individual to divest of such instru-3
ment through any means provided under subsection 4
(b)(1). 5
‘‘(3) Q
UALIFIED BLIND TRUST REQUIRE -6
MENTS.—Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), a 7
qualified blind trust may not be established for pur-8
poses of complying with this subchapter without the 9
prior approval of the supervising ethics office. With 10
respect to any such trust so approved, the applicable 11
trustee— 12
‘‘(A) shall divest of any such instrument 13
placed in the trust not later than 6 months 14
after the trust is established; 15
‘‘(B) shall certify to the applicable super-16
vising ethics office on an annual basis that the 17
trustee has not provided any information on the 18
trust’s assets or transactions to the applicable 19
covered individual; and 20
‘‘(C) may not have a close personal or 21
business relationship with the applicable cov-22
ered individual. 23
‘‘(d) I
NCOMETAX.—A loss from a transaction or 24
holding involving a covered financial instrument that is 25
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conducted in violation of this section may not be deducted 1
from the amount of income tax owed by the covered indi-2
vidual. 3
‘‘(e) A
SSETSUPONSEPARATION.—In the case of a 4
spouse or dependent who ceases to be a covered individual, 5
such spouse or dependent may regain control over any cov-6
ered financial instrument that was placed into a qualified 7
blind trust pursuant to subsection (a). 8
‘‘(f) P
ROOF OFCOMPLIANCE.— 9
‘‘(1) S
UBMISSION.—A Member of Congress 10
shall submit to the supervising ethics office a pledge 11
of compliance with the requirements of this sub-12
chapter, and shall produce, upon request of the su-13
pervising ethics office, material or information deter-14
mined by the supervising ethics committee to be nec-15
essary to indicate compliance with the provisions of 16
this subchapter. 17
‘‘(2) C
ERTIFICATE.—The supervising ethics of-18
fice shall provide each Member of Congress in com-19
pliance with the provisions of this Act with a certifi-20
cate of compliance. 21
‘‘(3) P
UBLICATION.—The supervising ethics of-22
fice shall make available, on a publicly accessible 23
website, all certificates issued under this subsection. 24
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‘‘§ 13153. Enforcement 1
‘‘(a) R
EFERRAL.—The supervising ethics office shall 2
refer to the Attorney General the name of any covered 3
individual who such office has reasonable cause to believe 4
has willfully failed to comply with the requirements of sec-5
tion 13152. 6
‘‘(b) P
ENALTY.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Attorney General may 8
bring a civil action in any appropriate United States 9
district court against any covered individual who 10
knowingly and willfully fails to comply with section 11
13152. The court in which such action is brought 12
may assess against such individual a civil penalty in 13
any amount, not to exceed $50,000. 14
‘‘(2) L
IMITATION.—A covered individual may 15
not pay any penalty resulting from a civil action 16
under paragraph (1) using— 17
‘‘(A) funds from a Members’ Representa-18
tional Allowance or Senators’ Official Personnel 19
and Office Expense Account (as the case may 20
be); or 21
‘‘(B) funds of any political committee 22
under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 23
1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.).’’. 24
(b) A
PPLICATION OFTAXRULES FORSALES OF 25
P
ROPERTYTOCOMPLYWITHCONFLICT-OF-INTEREST 26
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REQUIREMENTS.—Section 1043 of the Internal Revenue 1
Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the fol-2
lowing new subsection: 3
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATION TOPROHIBITION ONCONGRES-4
SIONALOWNERSHIP OFCERTAINASSETS.— 5
‘‘(1) T
REATMENT AS CONFLICT OF INTEREST 6
STATUTE.—For purposes of subsection (b)(2)(A), 7
subchapter IV of chapter 131 of title 5, United 8
States Code, shall be treated as a Federal conflict 9
of interest statute. 10
‘‘(2) C
OVERED INDIVIDUALS TREATED AS ELI -11
GIBLE PERSONS.—For purposes of this section— 12
‘‘(A) the term ‘eligible person’ shall include 13
covered individuals (as defined in section 13151 14
of title 5, United States Code), and 15
‘‘(B) such covered individuals shall be 16
treated as referred to in subsection (b)(1)(A) 17
for purposes of applying subsection (b)(5)(A). 18
‘‘(3) C
ERTIFICATES OF DIVESTITURE ISSUED 19
BY ETHICS COMMITTEE .—In the case of any covered 20
individual referred to in paragraph (2)(A), a certifi-21
cate of divestiture meets the requirement of sub-22
section (b)(2)(B) if such certificate is issued by the 23
applicable Congressional ethics committee.’’. 24
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(c) CLERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 1
for such chapter is amended by inserting after the item 2
relating to section 13146 the following: 3
‘‘SUBCHAPTER IV—PROHIBITION ON CONGRESSIONAL OWNERSHIP OF
FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS
‘‘13151. Definitions.
‘‘13152. Limitation on owning or trading certain assets.
‘‘13153. Enforcement.’’.
Æ
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