Congress moves to block lawmakers from profiting off their own votes
H.R. 9989 — CITE Act of 2026 · Filed by Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) · Introduced Jul 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires candidates for President, Senate, or House to either sell off their publicly traded stock holdings or place them in a blind trust within 90 days of filing for office. The candidate cannot know what the trustee does with the money, cannot buy new stocks while running, and must certify compliance to their chamber's ethics committee. Broad index funds, Treasury bonds, and retirement accounts are exempt.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is straightforward: it mandates asset divestiture or blind-trust placement for federal candidates to eliminate stock-ownership conflicts. This is a standard ethics/governance measure, not a tax provision, subsidy, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The 'good faith efforts' language for spouses and dependent children creates an enforcement gap: a candidate can claim a spouse refused to divest, and the ethics office must then decide whether to grant an exemption. This may allow de facto non-compliance in some cases.
- The bill does not address assets held in trusts, LLCs, or other opaque structures that a candidate may control indirectly. A candidate could theoretically place stock in a family LLC and claim it is not a 'covered investment' under the definition.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who it affects
The bill directly addresses a real conflict of interest: elected officials making policy decisions that affect companies they own stock in. By forcing divestiture or blind trusts, it reduces the appearance and reality of self-dealing in legislative votes.