1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I’m writing today to urge you to support the bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Ashley Moody that would ban members of Congress and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks. Although I feel like I’ve been writing about this in vain for a decade, I support the bill as it represents meaningful reform that addresses a fundamental conflict of interest eroding public trust in our government. Members of Congress have access to non-public information through their positions that can directly impact financial markets. Recent years have seen ethics scrutiny and many criminal investigations into lawmakers accused of profiting from stock trades based on privileged information. This creates an inherent conflict between serving constituents and personal financial gain. The American people deserve representatives whose decisions are guided solely by the public interest, not some corporations or stock portfolio performance. The Gillibrand-Moody bill is pretty clear. It give scurrent lawmakers 180 days to divest individual stock holdings and newly elected members 90 days from being sworn in. The legislation also prohibits trading and owning certain other financial assets including securities, commodities, and futures. This approach mirrors a similar the House bill introduced last year. Alternative proposals that allow members to keep existing holdings fall short of genuine reform. Permitting lawmakers to retain stocks they already own does nothing to eliminate the conflict of interest that undermines public confidence. Real reform requires divestment, not just restrictions on future purchases. Perhaps most important of all, this issue has broad public support across party lines because constituents recognize the fundamental unfairness of elected officials profiting from their positions. I urge you to cosponsor and vote for the Gillibrand-Moody bill to restore integrity to Congress and demonstrate that you work for your constituents, not your investment portfolio. Thank you.