Most members of Congress routinely put off revealing their personal finances to the public — without suffering any consequences

• Members of Congress are required to file documents disclosing their personal finances every year.
• But it's easy for them to push that deadline back — this year, nearly 60% of House members did it.

According to federal law, members of the House and Senate are required to file documents detailing their personal finances every year by May 15.

Yet most House members didn't meet that deadline.

A new report from Acccountable.US, a left-leaning anti-corruption group, found that nearly 60% of House members requested extra time to file their annual financial disclosure forms, with over 80% of those who filed extensions seeking an extra 90 days to do so.

A slight majority of those lawmakers, 54.5%, were Republicans.

While the extensions are completely legal, the frequency with which they're used underscores the fickleness of the existing ethics rules governing Congress.

With such routine delays in providing accurate, up-to-date information, it becomes harder for voters to judge whether lawmakers may have a conflict of interest stemming from their assets, stock trades, agreements, and other financial arrangements that they're required to disclose.

Disclosures also allow the public to see other details of lawmakers' financial arrangements, including the money they're earning from book deals or the debts that they may be repaid from their campaigns.

These latest findings also come amid the backdrop of a long-running effort by some lawmakers and outside advocates to ban members of Congress from owning or trading stocks. Under current law, lawmakers are required to disclose their stock trades within 30 days — though violations of that law are frequent and often go unpunished.

Several polls conducted in recent years have found overwhelming support for doing so, stemming from growing public sentiment that lawmakers may unduly benefit from stock holdings while in office.

Some of the bills that have been introduced to ban congressional stock trading also strengthen existing enforcement mechanisms for violations of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which governs disclosures around stock trades but has long been seen as toothless and inadequate.

In a statement accompanying the Accountable.US report, Liz Zelnick, director of the group's Economic Security & Corporate Power Program, argued that the status quo on disclosure allowed lawmakers to "trade in secret by kicking the can on public disclosure, which only invites corruption and conflicts of interest."

"If the MAGA House Majority is unwilling to act on popular and bipartisan efforts to prevent self-dealing on Wall Street and restore public trust in government, it would only raise more questions about what they have to hide," added Zelnick.

While several bills have been introduced this year to banning stock trading in Congress, the Republican-controlled House has yet to take action on the issue — despite House Speaker Kevin McCarthy previously expressing support for a ban.