# Plain Language Summary: Eliminating Executive Branch Insider Trading Act

This bill prevents high-ranking government officials from using secret information they learn on the job to make profitable stock trades. Right now, there's a law called the STOCK Act that applies this rule to members of Congress, but this bill extends those same restrictions to executive branch employees—people who work in federal agencies and departments like the Treasury Department, Defense Department, and others.

Here's what it means in practical terms: If you work for the federal government and you learn confidential information about a company or industry through your job, you can't use that information to buy or sell stocks before the public finds out about it. For example, if someone at the EPA learns that a major environmental violation is about to be announced, they can't quickly buy or sell stocks in that company to profit from the news. The bill also prevents these officials from tipping off family members or friends so they can make trades based on insider information.

The bill applies to thousands of federal employees across all agencies, from low-level staff to cabinet secretaries. Violations would be treated seriously, with penalties including fines and potential criminal charges. This is designed to restore public trust in government by ensuring that federal workers aren't using their positions to get rich off information that ordinary Americans don't have access to. It's essentially saying that the same rules that keep Congress members from insider trading should apply equally to everyone else working in the executive branch of government.

Eliminating Executive Branch Insider Trading Act

Hawley, Josh

Eliminating Executive Branch Insider Trading Act This bill prohibits specified executive branch officials and others from holding or trading certain investments (e.g., individual stocks and related financial instruments other than diversified investment funds or U.S. Treasury securities). Covered individuals include the President, the Vice President, each executive branch officer or employee at or above a specified pay grade, each member of a uniformed service at or above a specified pay grade, each officer or employee in any other position determined by the Office of Government Ethics to be of equal classification to such positions, and the spouse of any such individual. The prohibition does not apply to assets held in a qualified blind trust. Any profit made in violation of the prohibition must be disgorged to the Treasury and may subject the individual to a civil fine. The Department of Justice may bring a civil action in U.S. district court against any covered individual who violates this bill's prohibition. The Government Accountability Office, at specified intervals, must (1) audit compliance by a representative sample of covered individuals with this bill's requirements, and (2) report the results to the supervising ethics committees.