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This bill — the Presidential Conflicts of Interest Act of 2019 — would require the president and vice president to disclose and divest any potential financial conflicts of interest and require presidential appointees to recuse themselves from any specific matters involving the president's financial conflicts of interest that come before their agencies.

Currently, presidents and vice presidents are exempt from many federal financial conflicts of interest laws. However, it has been a long standing practice for presidents to address concerns regarding their foreign and domestic conflicts of interest by divesting their financial interests and placing them in a true blind trust (or its equivalent). To ensure presidents’ and vice presidents’ compliance with the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, this bill would codify that practice by:

Requiring the president, vice president, their spouses, and minor or dependent children to divest all interests that create financial conflicts of interest by placing those assets in a true blind trust, which would be managed by an independent trustee who would oversee the sale of assets and place the proceeds in conflict-free holdings;
Adopting a sense of the Congress that the President's violation of financial conflicts of interest laws or the ethics requirements that apply to executive branch employees constitute a high crime or misdemeanor under the impeachment clause of the U.S. Constitution; and
Prohibiting presidential appointees from participating in matters that directly involve the financial interests of the president.

This bill would also require all major-party presidential nominees to release three years of tax returns.

Were this bill to be enacted into law, a president who violates its provisions could be subject to impeachment.

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Should the President & Vice President Have to Place Their Financial Assets in Blind Trusts to Avoid Conflicts of Interest?