Legislation U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., first introduced two years ago to prohibit members of Congress from stock trading has cleared a key hurdle.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the bill Wednesday, sending it to the Senate floor.

“This is essential ethics reform that is long overdue,” Ossoff said Thursday. “Georgians of all political persuasions and Americans of all political persuasions agree that members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we’re in office.”

Ossoff’s bipartisan bill – which is cosponsored by committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. – would prohibit members of Congress from buying stocks and other covered investments and ban lawmakers from selling stocks 90 days after enactment. Spouses and dependent children would be banned from trading stocks starting in March 2027.

The legislation also would require members of Congress, the president, and the vice president to divest from all covered investments starting in 2027.

Since members of Congress are in a position to influence policy choices that affect U.S. businesses and industries, they should not be able to steer those decisions in a way that would benefit their own financial interests, Ossoff said. Also, lawmakers allowed to engage in stock trading enjoy an unfair advantage over rank-and-file Americans because they have access to information not available to the public, he said.

While Ossoff’s bill enjoyed bipartisan support in the Senate committee, it faces a difficult path moving forward in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to pass legislation. Even if it gets through the Senate, it faces an uncertain future in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.

However, the legislation is popular with the American public. Polls have shown most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and independents – overwhelmingly support banning stock trading by members of Congress.

Ossoff said he hopes to get a floor vote on his bill in the Senate before Election Day in November.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.