# 119-s-1498: Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act

119-s-1498, Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Hawley, Josh [R-MO] (R-MO); status in_committee; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-07-30).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1498
- As of: 2026-07-30
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-1498
- Congress: 119
- Title: Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act
- Status: in_committee
- Introduced: 2025-04-28
- Sponsor: Sen. Hawley, Josh [R-MO] (R-MO)
- Cosponsors: 5
- Policy area: Congress
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-07-30

## Summary

**Ban on covered investments for top federal officials.** This bill would create the Halting Ownership and Non‑Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act to bar many individual financial holdings by the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, and their families. It would force divestitures, restrict new and existing qualified blind trusts, expand searchable public financial disclosures, and set civil penalties for noncompliance. - Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President would be prohibited from acquiring defined "covered investments" and face cooling‑off rules that bar control or new purchases until 90 days after leaving office. They must divest existing covered investments on the timetables the bill sets. - Spouses and dependent children are brought under the rules. A legal guardian may hold or trade for a dependent child only if the total value stays below $10,000 and some family exceptions and spouse income exclusions are specified. - Supervising ethics offices and trustees must publish notices, extension requests, dissolution notices, and penalties online and provide searchable electronic filing and public access 18 months after enactment. Civil penalties can include a formula equal to about 10 percent of undivested asset value.

## Cosponsors (5)

- Sen. Moreno, Bernie [R-OH] (R-OH), 2025-04-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Ossoff, Jon [D-GA] (D-GA), 2025-07-30T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI] (D-MI), 2025-07-30T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR), 2025-12-09T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV] (D-NV), 2026-04-28T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- More public disclosure of officials' finances: benefit, medium. If enacted, the House and Senate would have to publish searchable, downloadable databases of financial disclosure and transaction reports and related notices. If enacted, those databases would let users search by filer name, asset, transaction type, ticker, date, and amount, must provide an API, an…
- New investment bans for officials: cost, high. If enacted, covered federal officials and their spouses and dependent children would be barred from buying many types of investments on the date of enactment. If enacted, they would have to divest covered investments by deadlines that differ for those sworn in before or after enactment and that all…
- Stronger fines for ethics violations: cost, high. If enacted, supervising ethics offices could assess recurring civil penalties for officials who fail to divest or who improperly acquire covered investments. If enacted, penalties would begin 30 days after a written notice and could be charged at least once every 30 days while noncompliance continu…

## Related bills

- 119-s-1032: Major Richard Star Act
- 119-s-752: Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act
- 119-s-844: Faster Labor Contracts Act
- 119-sres-913: A resolution relating to the death of the Honorable Nancy Kassebaum, former United States Senator for the State of Kansas.
- 119-sres-897: A resolution honoring the life, service, and legacy of the Honorable Jon Llewellyn Kyl, former Senator for the State of Arizona.
- 119-sres-801: A resolution honoring the life and legacy of the Honorable Lindsey Olin Graham, a Senator from the State of South Carolina.

## Sources
- [119-s-1498 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1498)

## Related
- [119-s-1032: Major Richard Star Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1032)
- [119-s-752: Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-752)
- [119-s-844: Faster Labor Contracts Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-844)
- [119-sres-913: A resolution relating to the death of the Honorable Nancy Kassebaum, former Uni…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-913)
- [119-sres-897: A resolution honoring the life, service, and legacy of the Honorable Jon Llewel…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-897)
- [119-sres-801: A resolution honoring the life and legacy of the Honorable Lindsey Olin Graham,…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-801)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1498 (as of 2026-07-30).