Sponsors
The bill strengthens ethics by restricting investments, outside pay, and post‑employment lobbying to reduce conflicts and foreign influence, but it raises significant financial, privacy, and compliance costs for officials and their families and may push influence into harder‑to‑track channels.
Covered federal officials (Members of Congress, certain officers, and their families) will face stricter limits on private investments, paid outside work, and post-employment lobbying, reducing conflicts of interest and the appearance of pay-to-play in policymaking.
Former Members face expanded restrictions on working for or on behalf of foreign principals, which reduces avenues for foreign influence on U.S. policymaking.
Covered officials and designated family members can retain low‑risk, broadly diversified holdings (Treasury securities, mutual funds/ETFs) and receive favorable tax treatment on divestitures, easing the financial transition away from prohibited assets.
Covered officials and some family members may be forced to divest broad classes of investments within 90 days and face penalties that can equal an official's full monthly salary per month of violation, creating substantial risk of forced, ill‑timed sales and large financial liabilities.
Limiting paid outside work to a small share of income (15%) will reduce earnings for officials who rely on outside pay and may deter private‑sector participation, removing expertise that informs policymaking.
A lifetime lobbying ban for former Members will restrict post‑public‑service employment opportunities and earnings for many former lawmakers.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Tightens ethics rules: narrows permissible outside pay and board service, defines covered investments, and imposes lifetime lobbying bans for former Senators and Representatives.
Introduced September 17, 2025 by Andy Kim · Last progress September 17, 2025
Prohibits most outside paid work and service on for‑profit boards for a broad set of federal officials, sharply limits what investments count as permissible holdings, and imposes a lifetime ban on lobbying by former Senators and Representatives with expanded restrictions on post‑employment contacts with foreign entities. It creates detailed definitions of “covered investments,” who is a covered official (including Members of Congress, senior executive‑branch appointees, and many judges), narrow exceptions for activities like practicing medicine or certain unpaid nonprofit service, and a specific effective date for the new post‑employment lobbying rules (on or after the earlier of the adjournment of the first session of the 120th Congress or January 4, 2027).