Congresswoman Ashley Hinson announced on Apr. 14 that she is cosponsoring the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading (PREDICT) Act, a bipartisan bill designed to prohibit senior federal government officials from engaging in insider trading on political prediction markets.
The legislation seeks to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest and misuse of nonpublic information by those in positions of power. The PREDICT Act would specifically prevent Members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children, the president and vice president, as well as political appointees in executive branch roles from placing trades on prediction markets tied to political events or government actions.
“I can’t think of anything swampier than Members of Congress or other federal officials using insider knowledge to gamble on prediction markets — Americans should be able to trust that their representatives aren’t making money on current events. That’s why I’m working across the aisle to ensure Members of Congress and other senior federal officials cannot gamble on prediction markets. I will continue my fight to root out corruption in Washington,” Hinson said.
Violations under the proposed law would result in a civil penalty equal to ten percent of the value involved in any prohibited transaction, with all profits forfeited to the U.S. Treasury. The full text of the PREDICT Act is available for public review.
Ashley Hinson currently represents Iowa’s 2nd district in Congress after replacing Abby Finkenauer in 2021, according to Ballotpedia. She has served Iowa’s 2nd District since 2021 following her previous tenure from 2017 through 2021 as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives according to her official biography. Born in Des Moines in 1983, Hinson now resides in Marion at age thirty-nine as reported by The Des Moines Register. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California in 2004 according to Hawkeye Caucus.
The introduction of this bill comes amid ongoing debates about ethics standards for elected officials and aims at reinforcing public confidence by limiting opportunities for personal financial gain related directly or indirectly to privileged information.
