The STOCK Act: Congressional Trading Disclosure Law
What is the STOCK Act?
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was signed into law on April 4, 2012. It explicitly prohibits members of Congress, congressional staff, and other federal employees from using non-public information obtained through their official positions for personal financial gain. The law also requires timely public disclosure of securities transactions.
Key Requirements
- Members must report any stock transaction exceeding $1,000 within 45 days of the trade
- Applies to the member, their spouse, and dependent children
- Trades must be reported to the Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate
- Reports are made publicly available online through official filing systems
- Covers stocks, bonds, commodity futures, and other securities
Penalties for Non-Compliance
- Late filing fee of $200 per late disclosure (can be waived by the Ethics Committee)
- Potential investigation by the House or Senate Ethics Committee
- In practice, penalties are rarely enforced — many members file late with no meaningful consequences
- No member of Congress has ever been prosecuted solely for a STOCK Act violation
History and Context
The STOCK Act was passed in 2012 after public outrage over reports that members of Congress were trading stocks based on non-public legislative information. A 2011 60 Minutes segment highlighted how several members made suspiciously well-timed trades around major policy announcements.
The original bill included provisions requiring online, searchable disclosure of all financial transactions. However, in 2013, Congress quietly amended the law to remove the online disclosure requirement for congressional staff and senior executive branch officials, citing national security concerns.
Since then, multiple bills have been proposed to ban congressional stock trading entirely — including the TRUST in Congress Act and the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act — but none have been enacted into law.
How CongressFlow Tracks Compliance
CongressFlow computes the filing delay for every congressional stock trade by measuring the number of days between the transaction date and the disclosure date. Any trade disclosed more than 45 days after it was made is flagged as LATE.
Our data shows that a significant percentage of trades are filed late, and some members consistently exceed the 45-day deadline by months or even years.