H.R. 3779 — STOCK Act 2.0

This section establishes a reporting requirement in the Ethics in Government Act for covered persons—certain senior federal officers and employees listed in 5 U.S.C. §13105(l)(1)-(10), plus their spouses and dependent children under age 19—to disclose to their supervising ethics office any application for, or receipt of, a covered payment from the federal government (i.e., grants, loans, contracts, or other items of value, excluding salaries and tax refunds), including by any business owned and controlled by the covered person. (1) Reports must be filed within 30 days of receiving notice of the application or receipt, but no later than 45 days after the payment is made or promised; (2) reports must identify the type and amount of payment, recipient name and relationship to filer, and application/receipt dates; and (3) failure to report incurs a $5,000 fine. The section makes technical and conforming amendments to §§13103(f) and 13104(a) and applies to applications submitted and payments made or promised on or after 90 days following enactment.

This section applies specified ethics, financial disclosure, and securities reporting requirements to presidents, vice presidents, and directors of Federal Reserve banks, specifically (1) subchapter I of chapter 131 of title 5, United States Code (i.e., public financial disclosure under the Ethics in Government Act provisions); (2) the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act); and (3) subsections (h) and (i) of section 21A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78u-1) (i.e., SEC notification and reporting requirements applicable to whistleblower allegations against certain government personnel). This section designates the Inspector General of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection as the supervising ethics office for such officials.

This section revises the penalty for an individual's failure to file a transaction report to a $1,000 fine in each case (from a fine under title 18, United States Code). It further requires each supervising ethics office to amend its rules, regulations, guidance, documents, papers, and other records accordingly not later than one year after enactment.

This section establishes a new subchapter in 5 U.S.C. Chapter 131 prohibiting "covered individuals"—including Members of Congress, the President, Vice President, Supreme Court justices, Federal Reserve Board members and Federal Reserve bank presidents or vice presidents, special government employees, and their spouses or dependent children under age 19—from holding, purchasing, selling, or transacting any "covered financial interest," defined to include securities, futures, commodities, cryptocurrency from initial coin offerings or blockchain, and comparable synthetic interests (excluding diversified registered investment funds, spousal primary occupation compensation or employer securities, and U.S. Treasuries); from creating net short positions in securities; and from serving as officers or board members of for-profit entities. It requires divestiture of previously held covered financial interests within 120 days of becoming a covered individual or the date of enactment and of inherited interests within 120 days of inheritance (with supervising ethics office extensions totaling up to 150 additional days in 45-day increments); mandates certificates of compliance; requires public website disclosure of extension requests and decisions within 30 days; and authorizes fines of at least 10% of the value of any violating interest. The prohibitions apply to beneficial interests in trusts and include a 120-day cooling-off period after ceasing covered status.

This section amends the STOCK Act to require electronic filing of, and searchable public online access to, financial disclosure reports—including transaction reports under 5 U.S.C. §13105(l) and related notices—through official websites for (1) Members of Congress and congressional staff via Senate and House databases; and (2) very senior executive branch employees (i.e., the President, Vice President, and Senate-confirmed officers in 5 U.S.C. §§5312-5313) via the Office of Government Ethics database. Public access must allow searching, sorting, and downloading by filer name, asset, transaction type, ticker symbol, notification date, amount, and transaction date; provide application programming interface access; and fully comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. §794d)—which requires federal electronic and information technology to be accessible to individuals with disabilities—and the most recent Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This section further directs the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, not later than one year after enactment, to develop a similar system for judicial officers' reports.