Sponsor
Josh Harder
Representative · D-CA
Representative · D-CA
The bill strengthens ethics, transparency, and conflict-of-interest protections for top officials (through more frequent disclosures, relatives' reporting, divestiture, and gift rules) at the cost of more administrative work, privacy concerns for relatives, and potential financial trade-offs for officeholders and their families.
Covered federal officers (including many senior White House appointees) will file disclosures more frequently and on clearer deadlines, making conflicts of interest easier to detect sooner.
The President, Vice President, and Cabinet must include relatives' financial interests (with a clear statutory definition of "relative"), improving transparency and reducing ambiguity for filers and ethics officials.
Presidents and Vice Presidents must divest private financial holdings quickly and are barred from decision-making corporate roles and commercial exploitation of their name/likeness, reducing conflicts of interest and improper influence.
Federal employees and agencies will face increased administrative burden and processing costs to prepare, collect, review, and enforce more frequent disclosures and additional reporting requirements.
Relatives of top officials will have more of their financial information disclosed, raising privacy and potential identity/security risks if handling and protections are not strengthened.
Requiring rapid divestiture (within 30 days) may force sales at unfavorable prices and cause real financial losses or tax consequences for the officeholder or beneficiaries.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Bars Presidents/VPs from holding for‑profit interests or serving in corporate decision roles, expands biannual disclosures (including specified relatives for top officials), and tightens gift disposal rules.
Official title: To amend title 5, United States Code, to require biannual financial disclosure reports for Federal officials, to prohibit certain acts by the President, the Vice President, and their families, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 15, 2025 by Josh Harder · Last progress September 15, 2025
Prohibits Presidents and Vice Presidents from holding or operating for‑profit financial interests while in office, bans commercial use of their name or likeness by them or their immediate family for profit, and bars them from decision‑making roles in private companies. It also tightens ethics and disclosure rules across the executive branch: agencies must promptly dispose of non‑minimal tangible gifts deposited for Presidential duties, certain officers must file biannual financial disclosure reports starting in 2026, and Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Cabinet members must report specified relatives’ financial information on those disclosures.