John,

Congress has delayed this basic, obvious reform for far too long, while enriching themselves in ways that would be blatantly illegal for any other American -- using insider information to profit from buying and selling individual stocks.

For any ordinary American, that’s illegal. But members of Congress do something even worse: they use insider knowledge and they write the rules for the very companies and industries they invest in. That’s how they consistently beat the market by an average of 12% a year -- an outcome that would trigger investigations anywhere outside Capitol Hill.

For decades, Congress has dodged reform, slow-walking and shelving every bill that would close this gaping loophole. But now, a long-ignored tool -- the discharge petition -- is finally forcing members to choose between protecting their own corrupt financial advantages, or doing what the public has demanded for years.

Once lawmakers used a discharge petition to force release of the Epstein files over Speaker Mike Johnson’s objections, members realized that this obscure parliamentary maneuver can bring wildly popular reforms to the House floor, whether leadership wants them or not.

That’s why Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s discharge petition for the End Congressional Stock Trading Act is gaining bipartisan traction. Enough Republicans have already signed that if every Democrat joins them, Congress will finally have to vote on banning individual stock trades -- and it will almost certainly pass. No one wants to be seen defending the right to personally profit from privileged information.

It’s time to end this practice once and for all. Tell your Representative to sign the discharge petition and force a vote to ban congressional stock trading.

Let’s face it: the evidence is overwhelming. In any other job, trading individual stocks while possessing confidential market-moving information -- or regulating the companies you’re investing in -- would be grounds for prosecution. Congress has protected itself by writing special rules for itself while pretending index funds didn’t exist.

And the public sees straight through it. With 86% of Americans supporting a ban, voters understand exactly what Congress has hoped to obscure: a system where lawmakers control the rules, influence the outcomes, and quietly enrich themselves is the very definition of self-dealing.

These conflicts of interest are not hypothetical. Every individual stock trade creates a financial incentive. Multiply that across hundreds of lawmakers, thousands of trades, an army of lobbyists, and every bill that passes through Congress, and the picture is unmistakable: the system is tilted toward the people in power, not the people they serve.

This is about basic fairness. No game can be fair when the referees are betting on it -- especially when they’re also rewriting the rulebook to suit themselves.

For years, Congress refused to confront that truth. But now, a discharge petition forces the issue. Members must decide whether to stand with the American people or cling to a corrupt status quo that benefits them personally.

Tell your Representative to sign the discharge petition and force a vote to end congressional stock trading.

Thank you for helping push Congress toward long-overdue accountability.

- DFA AF Team