NO PROFIT Act

Full Title:
NO PROFIT Act

Summary#

This bill would make it illegal for a person to trade certain financial instruments while aware of "prioritized covered information." "Prioritized covered information" means material, nonpublic information from a covered social media account that a person obtained through "prioritized access" before the information was generally available. Covered social media accounts include accounts controlled or used by covered government officials, their covered family members, agents acting for them, or federal agencies. Covered government officials are defined broadly and include the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, congressional employees, executive branch employees, judicial officers, and certain people for 180 days after they leave those positions. The bill covers trading in securities, security-based swaps, commodities, futures, options, swaps, and contracts offered by speculative information markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would treat violations as enforceable under their existing authorities and must jointly issue rules within 180 days to implement the trading prohibition. The bill also makes it unlawful for a social media platform to knowingly offer or sell prioritized access to communications from covered social media accounts. A platform that violates this prohibition faces a civil penalty equal to the total revenue it received for the prioritized access, and the Attorney General may bring a civil action to recover that penalty.

What it means for you#

  • If you buy or sell securities, commodities, futures, options, swaps, or related contracts, you may not trade while aware of material, nonpublic information that you got early through prioritized access to certain officials' social media accounts.
  • The rule applies to information from accounts tied to many kinds of government officials, their immediate family, agents, or federal agencies.
  • Social media platforms would be barred from knowingly selling or otherwise providing paid or special early access to posts from those covered accounts.
  • The SEC, CFTC, and the Attorney General are given roles to make rules and enforce the prohibitions.

Expenses#

No publicly available information on budgetary costs. The bill requires joint SEC and CFTC rulemaking within 180 days and allows civil penalties equal to the revenue received for the prioritized access, but it does not include cost estimates or detailed budget effects in the text provided.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.