H.R. 396: TRUST in Congress Act

H.R. 396, the TRUST in Congress Act, doesn't ban members of Congress from owning investments. It bans them from managing those investments themselves. Every member, spouse and dependent child would have to move covered investments into a qualified blind trust, where an independent trustee makes the calls and the family no longer knows what's held.

The clock depends on when a member arrives. Anyone serving when the bill becomes law gets 180 days. Anyone sworn in later gets 90 days from taking office.

"Covered investment" is broad. It reaches individual stocks and other securities, commodities, futures, and any similar bet built through derivatives. Two things stay outside the rule: widely held investment funds, such as diversified mutual funds, and U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds.

The bill also closes the exit. A member can't dissolve the trust or take back control of those assets until 180 days after leaving Congress, so there's no stepping out and trading on what you learned the week before.

The only enforcement is disclosure. Within 15 days of setting up the trust, House members certify to the Clerk of the House and senators to the Secretary of the Senate. Members with no covered investments certify that instead. Both offices post every certification on their public websites.

One carve-out: if a spouse or dependent child is paid through a covered investment from their main job, such as company stock as part of their pay, that holding doesn't have to go into the trust.