Congress Stock Trades: How Late The Disclosures Really Arrive
A look at how many days pass between a lawmaker's trade and its public filing, how often the 45-day limit is passed, and what that means for copying trades.
How long it takes Congress to disclose stock trades
The typical trade by a member of Congress became public 23 days after it happened, based on 737 dated trades in House reports filed from August 27, 2026 to October 22, 2026 and Senate reports filed from August 28, 2026 to October 22, 2026. Three-quarters of trades were disclosed within 34 days (the 75th percentile). The longest single gap was 466 days.
The sample covers 47 members who had dated trades. It includes trades in spouses' and dependent children's accounts, which members must report too.
What the STOCK Act requires
The STOCK Act is the 2012 federal law that requires members of Congress to publicly report their securities transactions. Members get 30 days from when they learn of a trade to disclose it, with a hard cap of 45 days from the trade itself.
That means two clocks. The 30-day clock starts when the member is notified, so a gap shorter than 45 days is not proof a report was on time. The 45-day clock is the outer limit, so a gap longer than that is past it. House filings are posted by the Clerk of the House and Senate filings through the Senate's electronic disclosure site.
Share of trades filed past the 45-day limit
In the sample, 87 of 737 trades (11.8%) were disclosed more than 45 days after the trade. A long gap is a fact about two dates, not a finding of wrongdoing: the study cannot see when a member learned of a trade or whether an extension or other explanation applied.
A trade repeated in an amended report is tallied only under its original filing.
House vs Senate disclosure timing
The House filed faster at the median, but it was also the only chamber with trades past the limit.
| Chamber | Trades | Median days | Filed more than 45 days after the trade |
|---|---|---|---|
| House | 627 | 23 | 87 (13.9%) |
| Senate | 110 | 28 | 0 (0.0%) |
So senators did not disclose faster at the median in this sample: 28 days against 23 for the House. No Senate trade in this window was past 45 days. With 110 Senate trades against 627 House trades, the Senate figure rests on a much smaller base.
Which members had the longest typical gaps
The table shows members with three or more separate filings in the sample. A filing's gap is that filing's longest trade, and the median is taken across the member's filings.
| Member | Filings | Trades | Median days per filing | Filings with a trade more than 45 days old |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rep. Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr. (D-CA) | 3 | 179 | 39 | 1 |
| Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) | 4 | 26 | 35.5 | 0 |
| Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) | 3 | 143 | 27 | 0 |
| Rep. Michael A. Rulli (R-OH) | 3 | 7 | 26 | 0 |
| Rep. Suzan K. DelBene (D-WA) | 3 | 10 | 26 | 0 |
| Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA) | 3 | 7 | 21 | 0 |
| Rep. David J. Taylor (R-OH) | 4 | 15 | 9 | 0 |
Rep. Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr. had one filing with a trade more than 45 days old, among 179 trades in three filings. Rep. David J. Taylor had the shortest median, 9 days. Large filings can bundle many trades, so one old trade in a filing sets that whole filing's gap. The sample does not say why any gap was long, and a long gap is a reason to read the filing, not a verdict.
What the delay means for copying Congress trades
By the time a trade is public, it is typically 23 days old, and a quarter of trades were disclosed 34 days or more after the fact. Prices may have moved a lot in that time, and the filing shows a trade, not the member's reasoning or whether the position was later sold. Reports also list value ranges rather than exact amounts.
This study measured timing only, not returns, so it says nothing about whether copying trades pays. If you want to check a filing yourself, search the House and Senate sites above, and read general investor basics at Investor.gov.
Frequently asked questions
How long do members of Congress have to report stock trades?
Within 30 days of learning of a trade, and no later than 45 days after it happened, under the STOCK Act.
What is the STOCK Act?
It is a 2012 law that requires members of Congress to publicly disclose their securities transactions within set deadlines.
Do senators disclose faster than House members?
Not at the median in this sample: 28 days for the Senate against 23 for the House. But no Senate trade was past 45 days, while 87 House trades (13.9%) were.
Can you copy Congress trades profitably?
This analysis measured disclosure timing, not returns, so it cannot say. It does show that trades typically surfaced 23 days after they occurred.
How this analysis was done
The data are periodic transaction reports from the House (filed August 27, 2026 to October 22, 2026) and the Senate (filed August 28, 2026 to October 22, 2026), with each disclosed transaction as one row, for 737 dated trades. Amended reports are not double counted, and exchanges are omitted.
We measured each gap in calendar days between trade and filing. We excluded rows lacking a transaction date, filed before it, or more than 730 days apart (a wrong or misread date). Spouses' and dependent children's accounts count. Members are named only with three or more separate filings in the sample.
Sources
- Financial Disclosure Reports — Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Electronic Financial Disclosures — U.S. Senate
- S.2038 — STOCK Act — Congress.gov
- Investor.gov — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Bullished Learn guides explain how filings and markets work. They are education, not investment advice: nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
