258 members traded $635.57 million in 2025. 1,692 trades on a single day of major tariff policy change. Congressional leaders outperform rank-and-file by up to 47 percentage points after ascending to leadership — a pattern inconsistent with chance. First-offense STOCK Act fine: $200 per transaction. Enforcement: self-policing by the Ethics Committee. The current system is a de facto license for insider trading by lawmakers.

• Complete ban on individual stock ownership for all members of Congress, senior congressional staff, and senior executive branch officials while in office
• Mandatory diversified instruments only: mutual funds, index ETFs, US Treasuries — no individual securities, options, or commodity positions
• Covers spouses and dependent children — the spousal trading exemption is the current system's largest loophole
• Real penalties: $50,000+ fines per violation, automatic Ethics Committee investigation, full disgorgement of all profits from prohibited trades
• Extends to the Federal Reserve by statute — not regulation, which can be reversed administratively
• Independent enforcement body — not congressional self-policing — subject to Universal Mandatory Duty to Act Standard

866 Hill staffers moved to K Street in 2025 — a 60% jump. 50%+ of retiring senators become lobbyists at an average 1,452% pay increase. Research shows 3.5 lobbyists advocating for change are needed to overcome one lobbyist defending the status quo — meaning corporate interests have a structural multiplier advantage in every legislative fight.

• 10-year cooling-off period before former members of Congress or senior staff may engage in any lobbying activity — including as "strategic advisors" performing lobbying-equivalent functions
• Lifetime lobbying ban for any former official who lobbies on behalf of foreign governments or foreign-controlled entities
• Ban lobbyist-bundled campaign contributions entirely — the most direct link between lobbying access and campaign money
• Real-time disclosure of all lobbying meetings and expenditures within 48 hours of contact — not quarterly lag reports
• Bar registered lobbyists from congressional floor and office suite access
• Criminal penalties for revolving-door violations — replacing the $200 civil fine regime
• Combined with Issue 18's publicly funded elections to break the contributions-lobbying feedback loop permanently

The Office of Technology Assessment was defunded in 1995 at a cost of $21.9 million per year. The lobbying industry now spends $4.4 billion annually — 200× OTA's budget — on the same lawmakers who defunded independent analysis. Without OTA, Congress relies on the industries it regulates for technical expertise on AI, quantum computing, biotechnology, climate science, and pharmaceutical pricing. The OTA statute was never repealed.

• Revive and massively expand OTA as the Congressional Institute for Nonpartisan Analysis (CINA) — activated through a single appropriation under the existing statute
• Scope: technology assessment (AI, quantum, biotech), economic analysis (concentration, algorithmic pricing), public health, environmental science, national security
• Peer review of all published work; public release within 90 days of completion
• Anti-capture provisions: 5-year revolving-door bars in both directions — no one leaves CINA for industry within 5 years
• Horizon scanning mandate following the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology model
• Budget: $200M+/year — still just 1/22nd of the lobbying industry's annual spend

RealPage's algorithmic rent-setting software was used by landlords controlling millions of units. Identical logic applies to healthcare pricing, airline fares, and essential goods. In 2025, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Sherman Act "agreement" requirements may not capture algorithmic coordination — creating a legal gap that this platform closes legislatively.

• Federal legislation making it unlawful to use or distribute a pricing algorithm that coordinates competitor pricing using shared competitively sensitive data
• Legislatively override the Ninth Circuit's 2025 ruling — Congress clarifies that algorithmic coordination constitutes an illegal agreement under Sherman Act standards
• Dual liability for both algorithm developers who sell coordinating software and companies that adopt it
• Dedicated FTC algorithmic enforcement division with specialized staff — subject to Universal Mandatory Duty to Act Standard
• Mandatory pricing transparency requirements for housing, healthcare, airline seats, and essential goods where algorithmic coordination is documented

30–60 million workers are currently subject to non-compete agreements. The FTC's projected impact of a federal ban: $488 billion in wage gains over a decade, 8,500+ new businesses annually, 14%+ increase in patenting activity. The nurse, the hair stylist, and the warehouse worker who make up the majority of non-compete subjects have no trade secrets to protect — their non-competes exist solely to suppress wages and mobility.

• Federal statutory ban on non-compete agreements for all workers — enacted by Congress directly, bypassing FTC rulemaking authority questions
• Narrow exception for genuine trade secret protection, following the German model: if an employer wants restriction, it must pay at least 50% of prior salary for the duration (capped at 2 years); without compensation, restriction is unenforceable
• Federal preemption of weaker state laws — national floor at least as protective as California's 150-year non-compete ban
• Trade secret law already exists independently through the Defend Trade Secrets Act — non-competes add wage suppression, not protection
• Existing non-competes void immediately upon enactment; no grandfathering of wage suppression contracts

Germany's codetermination model — workers elect half the supervisory board — has been running for decades at firms that are globally competitive manufacturers and exporters. S&P 500 buybacks hit $942.5 billion in 2024. A 4% excise tax on that volume generates approximately $37.7 billion annually. The current 1% rate is not a deterrent — it is a rounding error.

• Full German codetermination: workers elect one-half of board members at 2,000+ employee companies; one-third at 500–2,000 employees
• Mandatory works councils with co-decision rights at 100+ employee companies — including veto power over mass layoffs and major restructuring
• Increase buyback excise tax from 1% to 4%; require 2/3 shareholder supermajority for buyback approval — forcing boards to justify the capital allocation
• Expand the federal benefit corporation framework — Public Benefit Corporation charter that legally permits consideration of stakeholder interests alongside shareholder returns
• Executive compensation deduction cap: no corporate tax deduction for executive pay above 50:1 CEO-to-median-worker ratio — does not cap pay, removes the public subsidy for extreme inequality

83.3 million Americans have access to only one broadband provider. Chattanooga's municipal network returned $2.69 billion on a ~$220 million investment — 4.42:1 over a decade. Twenty states have ALEC-drafted laws prohibiting or severely restricting municipal broadband — laws written by the incumbents who failed to serve those communities.

• Federal preemption of all state laws banning or restricting municipal broadband — overriding ALEC-drafted restrictions in approximately 20 states
• $50 billion federal broadband infrastructure fund prioritizing municipal networks, electric cooperative broadband, and non-profit providers — not the incumbents who declined to build
• Classify broadband as an essential utility with price regulation in monopoly markets
• Universal minimum standard: 100/100 Mbps symmetrical — the 25/3 Mbps FCC definition is obsolete for modern work, healthcare, and education needs
• Analogy to rural electrification in the 1930s: private utilities declined to wire rural America; public power cooperatives did it instead