{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://vindman.house.gov/2026/08/31/vindman-calls-on-legislators-to-sell-their-stocks-or-step-down-to-restore-public-trust-and-ensure-politicians-pay-their-fair-share/", "Vindman Calls on\u00a0Legislators to Sell Their Stocks\u00a0or Step Down\u00a0to\u00a0Restore\u00a0Public Trust and\u00a0Ensure Politicians Pay Their Fair Share", "2026-08-31", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "House", "VA", "Eugene Simon Vindman", "V000138", "vindman.house.gov", "vindman", "https://vindman.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "Congressman Vindman Voluntarily Sold His Own Individual Stock Holdings Before Being Sworn into Congress in 2024\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Congressman Eugene Vindman (Va.-07) introduced the Sell Your Stocks or Step Down Act, legislation that would require Members of Congress, Cabinet officials, Federal judges, and other senior executive branch officials to sell their individual stock holdings before taking office and then pay their fair share in taxes.\n\nVindman voluntarily sold his own individual stock holdings before being sworn into Congress. He introduced the legislation after hearing from more than 900 constituents in a district-wide survey, who overwhelmingly said they support requiring elected and appointed officials to divest from individual stocks before serving in public office.\n\n\u201cI have one message for my colleagues in Congress and leaders across government: sell your stocks or step down. The American people deserve to know that the decisions their leaders make are based on what\u2019s best for the country, not what\u2019s best for their stock portfolio,\u201d said Vindman. \u201cIt\u2019s past time we take on corruption head on. I sold my individual stocks before taking office. I paid capital gains tax. If you\u2019re unwilling to put the public interest ahead of personal profit, you shouldn\u2019t be serving in public office.\u201d\n\nThe Sell Your Stocks or Step Down Act would require covered officials to divest from individual stocks before assuming office. It also ends a tax break on officials that shields them from paying capital gains taxes on these sales like ordinary Americans. The legislation is designed to strengthen ethics safeguards, reduce the appearance of self-dealing, and help restore public confidence in government by ensuring public officials cannot personally profit from decisions made while in office.\n\nBACKGROUND\n\nVindman has made tackling government corruption a cornerstone of his work in Congress.\n\nEarlier this Congress, he introduced legislation to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks and using prediction markets while in office and legislation to prohibit former Members of Congress from lobbying their former colleagues after leaving public service.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-01T09:48:49Z", "2026-09-01T09:49:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://vindman.house.gov/2026/08/31/vindman-calls-on-legislators-to-sell-their-stocks-or-step-down-to-restore-public-trust-and-ensure-politicians-pay-their-fair-share/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8511478081345558, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}