Sponsors (34)
The bill strengthens ethics by banning officials from promoting securities/digital assets and creating enforcement and penalties to deter self-dealing, but it raises significant retroactive liability, litigation risk, and administrative costs while one ethics statement remains non-binding.
Federal officials and senior executives are barred from issuing or promoting securities and digital assets for private gain, reducing conflicts of interest and potential self-dealing by covered public servants.
The bill authorizes the Attorney General and private parties to bring suits to enforce the ban, increasing legal avenues to hold wrongdoers accountable.
Requires disgorgement of ill-gotten profits to the Treasury and allows civil penalties (up to $250,000), which can deter misconduct and return funds to the public coffers.
Covered and adjacent individuals (including military personnel) face new retroactive civil and possible criminal exposure, including disgorgement for assets issued before enactment, creating uncertainty and hardship.
Authorizing private suits and using broad definitions (including spouses and dependents and many asset types) creates substantial litigation risk for officials and their families and could generate costly, protracted legal disputes.
Compliance, monitoring, and enforcement will impose administrative burdens on the Office of Special Counsel, OGE, DOJ, and agencies, diverting resources and increasing costs borne by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Bars covered federal officials and certain senior officials and their close family from issuing, sponsoring, or promoting securities, commodities, and digital assets for private gain near their time in office and allows civil enforcement.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Sam T. Liccardo · Last progress February 27, 2025
Prohibits federal elected officials, certain senior officials and their close family from issuing, sponsoring, or promoting securities, commodities, digital assets (including cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs, meme coins) and related financial products for private financial gain within set time windows around their service. It creates definitions for who is covered, what counts as a covered asset and a prohibited financial transaction, preserves an existing conflict-of-interest statute for some officials, and authorizes civil enforcement by the Department of Justice for violations.