“Under Article V, two-thirds of the states can compel a convention to do what Congress will not: end congressional trading in individual stocks and securities.”
Progress: 0 of 34. Every status is public — audit the count anytime.
Limited to one subject only: congressional insider trading. This application cannot be used for anything else. If it is counted with applications on another topic, or a convention takes up another subject, this application cancels itself. And anything a convention proposes still needs 38 states to ratify, so 13 states can block it.
Full legal wording: see “Legal safeguards” in the amendment section below.
On almost nothing else do Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree this completely — and they have agreed for years.
Support banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks while in office. 83% say they support it strongly.
Compass Poll by Change Research, August 8–13, 2026 · 2,045 registered voters
Favor prohibiting members of Congress from trading stocks in individual companies — the same overwhelming verdict, three years earlier.
Program for Public Consultation, University of Maryland, 2023
Say elected officials should not be allowed to trade stocks. Almost nobody defends the status quo out loud.
Economist / YouGov, 2026
The people’s verdict vs. Congress’s record
Every attempt below was real, bipartisan, and popular. Every one of them failed the same way: Congress was asked to police itself.
A 60 Minutes exposé shows members trading on nonpublic information. Congress answers with the STOCK Act, signed April 4, 2012: trades must be disclosed within 45 days, with a $200 late fee. Trading itself stays completely legal.
Disclosure, not a banOne year later, a one-page amendment repeals online disclosure for some 28,000 congressional and executive-branch staff and kills the searchable public database. The Senate passes it by unanimous consent; the House gives it 14 seconds of discussion.
Weakened in secretAfter closed-door coronavirus briefings, senators from both parties sell millions in stock ahead of the crash. The FBI seizes the Intelligence Committee chairman’s phone. Every investigation closes with no charges — and the ban bills introduced in the outrage go nowhere.
No charges · no banAsked about a ban in December 2021, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejects it outright: members “should be able to participate in that.” The House never votes on a ban while she holds the gavel.
Blocked by leadershipA New York Times investigation counts 97 members and more than 3,700 trades that intersected with their committee work — split almost evenly, 49 Republicans and 48 Democrats. A wave of bipartisan ban bills follows. None reaches the floor.
No floor voteThe ETHICS Act clears a Senate committee 8–4 in July 2024, the first trading ban ever to get that far. Leadership never schedules a floor vote, and the bill dies with the 118th Congress.
Died without a voteA new ban clears the same Senate committee, 8–7, a Republican joining Democrats to advance it. It never receives a floor vote either.
Died without a voteA discharge petition to force a vote on a stronger bipartisan bill stalls at 84 of the 218 signatures needed. The House instead passes a weaker ban, 232–198, that lets members keep every stock they already own. On September 30, 2026, the Senate kills it, 53–47 — seven votes short.
Died September 30, 2026Fourteen years. Both parties. Every kind of majority. The result never changes, because the people voting on the ban are the people profiting from the trading. That is exactly the deadlock Article V was written for — and the states don’t need Congress’s permission to break it.
Article V lets states go around Congress. No president, no governor, no act of Congress can start this — only states can.
Both chambers pass a resolution asking Congress for a convention on one subject only: banning congressional stock trading. Most states need just a simple majority.
At 34 states on the same subject, Congress must call the convention. No discretion, no veto.
State delegates draft the amendment on one subject only: prohibiting members of Congress from trading individual securities. The details are settled by the convention itself.
The amendment goes back to the states. 38 must ratify it for it to take effect.
A constitutional amendment can’t be quietly undone by a later Congress. That’s the point of the harder road.
Why not just pass a law? Congress tried. A ban passed the House in 2026 and died in the Senate, 53–47 — and it would have let members keep every stock they already owned. Laws get repealed. Amendments don’t.
States do not need to agree on finished amendment text. They need to agree on one subject, and let the convention settle the details.
An amendment prohibiting members of Congress from trading individual securities during their term of service.
Senators and Representatives, plus spouses and dependent children as the convention may define. Covered assets: individual stocks, corporate bonds, and other single-entity securities, plus options, futures, and short positions.
Divestment, blind trusts, and existing holdings. Exclusions for diversified funds and government securities. How far the household rule reaches. Penalties, forfeiture, and enforcement. The effective date and transition.
The convention is confined to this subject only. Delegates are instructed and recallable, with no authority outside it. This application counts only with same-subject applications. Any amendment still needs 38 states to ratify.
One choice must be the same in every applying state: Congress only, or also the President, Vice President, and principal executive officers.
Application for a Convention to Prohibit Congressional Trading in Individual Securities, adopted under Article V.
Members of Congress make laws that move markets and receive nonpublic information. Current law requires disclosure, not prohibition. Congress has tried and failed for more than a decade, including a House-passed measure that died in the Senate in 2026. A statute can be repealed by Congress; an amendment cannot.
The legislature applies to Congress for a convention limited to the subject in Article IV. The application continues until two-thirds of the states have applied on the same subject, unless the legislature rescinds it.
Subject: an amendment prohibiting covered officials from trading covered assets during their term of service. Covered officials are Senators and Representatives, with closely connected persons as the convention may define. Covered assets are single-entity securities and instruments deriving value from them. A prohibited transaction includes buying, selling, or otherwise trading, directly or indirectly.
Existing holdings, blind trusts, and compliance periods. Exclusions for diversified funds, index funds, U.S. obligations, and government retirement plans. Household coverage. Effective date and transition. Penalties, forfeiture, and enforcement. Whether Congress may enforce the amendment by legislation that strengthens, but does not diminish, the prohibition.
Confined to the Article IV subject. Aggregated only with same-subject applications. Delegates are selected, instructed, and recalled as the legislature provides, with no authority outside the subject. Ratification by three-fourths of the states is preserved.
Certified copies go to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the state's congressional delegation, the Archivist of the United States, and the presiding officers of every other state legislature.
Effective upon adoption by both chambers, and filing with the Secretary of State where state law requires it.
This application shall be aggregated only with applications upon the same subject, namely prohibiting members of Congress from trading individual securities. If it is counted together with applications upon any other subject, including Convention of States or balanced-budget applications, this application shall be deemed withdrawn as to that convention and void ab initio for that purpose.
The convention called upon this application is confined to the subject defined in Article IV. If the convention considers or proposes an amendment upon any other subject, this application shall be deemed withdrawn as to that convention.
Delegates shall be selected, instructed, and recalled as the legislature provides by law, and shall be without authority to vote for any proposal outside the defined subject. A vote cast outside those instructions is void, and the delegate is subject to immediate recall. Where a state enacts faithful-delegate legislation alongside its application, that legislation supplies the enforcement mechanism: Indiana made a delegate’s out-of-scope vote a felony in 2013, and Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Utah passed delegate-limit laws in 2014. Those laws are state-specific, not universal.
Nothing proposed by a convention takes effect unless ratified by three-fourths of the states: 38 states. Thirteen states can therefore block anything outside the scope, even if every earlier safeguard failed.
Historically, Congress has tended to act itself when states approached 34 applications on a topic, rather than let a convention meet; the direct election of senators, leading to the Seventeenth Amendment, is the usual example. This campaign can honestly be framed as pressure on Congress, not as a guaranteed convention.
No convention under Article V has ever been held, so none of these protections has been tested in court. Opponents may argue that Congress or delegates could ignore them. This application does not claim it is impossible for a convention to stray. It claims the application is boxed in four separate ways, and ratification by 38 states remains the final check.
Writing the full amendment text into the application, with identical text in every state and a convention limited to an up-or-down vote on it, would leave nothing to run away with, as in the Balanced Budget Amendment compact approach. That form would require every state to pass the exact same words and would require settling spouses, existing holdings, and other details now, rather than leaving them to the convention. This application does not do that; it is subject-only, which is why the self-cancelling clauses above matter.
Public on purpose. If a state isn’t marked contacted, it hasn’t been. Tap any state for its full procedure.
All 50 states are at “Not started” today. The campaign stages are: Not started → Outreach begun → Sponsor secured → Introduced → In committee → Passed one chamber → Applied.
Researched October 2026 from state legislatures, state constitutions, and the Congressional Research Service. Anything unverified says UNVERIFIED — nothing here is guessed.
Legislatures listen to their own people first. Be the person in your state who knows the procedure, finds a sponsor, and walks the resolution through. No experience needed — your state’s playbook is on this page, and the campaign has your back.
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