WASHINGTON (March 25, 2025) – Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in The Hill arguing that Congress should pass the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act to ensure that federal law holds foreign executives to the same insider trading standards as American executives.
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“The American people are tired of watching the U.S. receive the short end of the stick in our global business deals. They don’t understand why some have let other countries lie, steal and cheat in our marketplaces, and they reelected President Trump to help us unstack the deck.
“During his first term, President Trump worked to level the playing field for American companies and investors. He signed my bill, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, into law to allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist Chinese companies from American stock exchanges if they refuse to open their books to our regulators.
“It’s common sense. Chinese companies that want to profit from American investors should be held to the same transparency standards as American companies. In the years since President Trump signed this bill into law, Chinese companies have begun to comply with American disclosure requirements. Regulators have already issued millions of dollars in sanctions and penalties against Chinese companies and individuals who were cooking their books or otherwise violating our laws to the detriment of American investors.
“Now we have an opportunity to build upon this work by stopping the executives of foreign companies from gaming our markets through insider trading.”
. . .
“A foreign passport should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card for insider trading in the American stock exchange. There is absolutely no reason why American executives should face a higher standard of transparency than their foreign counterparts.
“Let’s build on the momentum of Trump’s first term to protect American investors from foreign executives who don’t respect our markets. I urge my congressional colleagues to join me in eliminating this double standard.”
Read Kennedy’s full op-ed here.
