Follow us on social

Will stock trade ban curtail DOD budget corruption?

Will stock trade ban curtail DOD budget corruption?

Lawmakers own stocks from firms that benefit from Pentagon contracts

Reporting | QiOSK

A new bipartisan proposal to ban members of Congress and their immediate family members from trading individual stocks looks to close a glaring conflict of interest between politicians who control massive government budgets, much of which go to private contractors.

The potential for serious conflicts of interest are quickly apparent when reviewing the stock trades of members of Congress's Senate and House Armed Services Committees, the panels responsible for the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that sets recommended funding levels for the Department of Defense.

The 2024 NDAA authorized $886 billion, approximately half of which will go to contractors.

Five of the six most traded individual stocks by members of the House Armed Services Committee in the past year — Baxter International, Alphabet, NetApp, General Motors and KKR — had contracts with the Department of Defense, meaning that members may stand to benefit from the NDAA via their investments in companies with Pentagon contracts.

Members of the committee’s Senate counterpart, the Senate Armed Services Committee, also traded heavily in stocks. Like the House committee, five of the six most traded stocks by members on the Senate Committee — Cleveland Cliffs, Texas Instruments, Applied Materials, Humacyte and Chevron — had contracts with the Department of Defense.

The new “ETHICS Act,” introduced by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) addresses this increasingly glaring ethics problem in members personal finances and would prohibit the sort of trades that members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are currently conducting.

“[I]f you want to serve in Congress don't come here to serve your portfolio, come here to serve the people,” Merkley told NPR

.


Billion Photos via shutterstock.com

Reporting | QiOSK
Trump Putin
Top image credit: President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin participate in a joint press conference in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, August 15, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Could bioweapons be center of gravity for US-Russia talks?

Latest 3

The deep freeze in U.S.-Russia relations shows occasional, promising cracks. It happened recently not on the primary issue of conflict — the war on Ukraine — but on a matter of mutual survival. During the United Nations General Assembly President Donald Trump announced an initiative to address one of arms control's most intractable problems: verifying compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

"To prevent potential disasters, I'm announcing today that my administration will lead an international effort to enforce the biological weapons convention by pioneering an AI verification system that everyone can trust,” Trump said. He framed this as an urgent priority, claiming "many countries are continuing extremely risky research into bioweapons and man-made pathogens."

The proposal found immediate endorsement in Moscow. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered unusually direct support, calling the initiative "brilliant in itself" and declaring that "Moscow supports it." Crucially, Peskov proposed concrete next steps, suggesting the U.S. proposal should be negotiated and formally codified in international agreements.

keep readingShow less
Donald Trump Africa trade
Top photo credit: global shipping (Shutterstock/APChanel); Donald Trump (Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock)

Trump's surprising swing in favor of sweeping 'duty free' Africa trade

Africa

In an unexpected move, the Trump administration has announced publicly that it supports renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for one year, and is interested in considering entering discussions on the long-term renewal of AGOA.

AGOA, which expired on September 30, was originally passed by Congress in 2000 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The legislation allows sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to American markets, and gives the U.S. president the power to suspend countries that he believes fail to meet AGOA’s requirements, particularly as they relate to governance issues, human rights standards, and a failure to provide American companies beneficial access to African markets. It was last renewed in 2015.

keep readingShow less
Nigeria
Top image credit: A U.S. Army soldier (2R) trains Nigerian Army soldiers at a military compound in Jaji, Nigeria, February 14, 2018. To match Special Report NIGERIA-MILITARY/INTERNATIONAL Capt. James Sheehan/U.S. Army/Handout via REUTERS

US arming Nigeria is becoming a crime against humanity

Africa

The very week the United States’ Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a $346 million arms sale to Nigeria, the U.S. State Department also released its 2024 Country report on human rights practices in the West African country.

The report, which has previously affected the country’s eligibility for security assistance, confirmed what civil society groups have been saying for years: that the security forces of Nigeria, Washington’s most significant ally in Sub-Saharan Africa, habitually operate with impunity and without due regard for human rights protection — a key condition for receiving U.S. security cooperation.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.