John,

As a former staffer on the House Ethics Committee, congressional ethics is near and dear to my heart. That’s why even in the middle of CREW’s biggest legal battle ever—preparing to go to the Supreme Court to enforce Donald Trump’s disqualification from the ballot—I wanted to take a moment to email you about banning congressional stock trading.

CREW has been advocating for a ban on members of Congress (and their spouses) owning and trading individual stocks for YEARS now.

And here’s why: We keep seeing new stories that prove that the current approach is not working.

Business Insider: 78 members of Congress have violated a law designed to prevent insider trading and stop conflicts-of-interest

New York Times: These 97 Members of Congress Reported Trades in Companies Influenced by Their Committees

We simply can’t depend on transparency to discourage members from making stock trades based on inside information. And we can’t depend on $200 fines per trade to act as a real deterrent.

It’s obvious that we need real reform, and the American people agree. A poll from this summer found that 86% of Americans across the political spectrum favor banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

When was the last time 86% of Americans agreed on anything?

We’re working with members across the political spectrum to get this reform done, and we don’t hesitate to file complaints when members disregard their ethics obligations. Here’s a sampling of our work to ban congressional stock trading:

• I joined an Instagram Live with Rep. Katie Porter last week.
• We filed a complaint against Rep. Mike Garcia for failing to disclose his sale of Boeing stock before his last election.
• We laid out the provisions that would give a congressional stock trading ban real teeth.
• We endorsed a bill that was introduced by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Rep. Fitzpatrick, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Gaetz (not your typical coalition).
• We mobilized a group of 26 nonprofits to urge Congress to act.
• I testified before the House Administration Committee last year.

If you want to serve in Congress, you should be focused on your constituents, not on day trading. It’s as simple as that.

If you would like to support CREW’s work fighting for bipartisan ethics congressional ethics reform, we would really appreciate it.