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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) yesterday proposed sweeping new ethics restrictions for federal officials, the Wall Street Journal reported. The proposal includes a ban on individual stock ownership by members of Congress, White House staff and federal judges; a prohibition on Americans serving as lobbyists for foreign countries; and a mandate on the release of tax returns by candidates for president and Congress. Warren’s legislation, dubbed the “Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act,” would apply conflict-of-interest laws to the president and vice president and require them to sell assets through a blind trust. In the name of transparency, she would require the IRS to release the previous eight years of tax returns for any candidate for president and vice president—and then do so for each year they are in office. The IRS would make public two years of tax returns for congressional candidates, in addition to each year they are in office. The bill is unlikely to become law, while Republicans control Congress and the White House.

In early 2014, hundreds of employees at Maine’s banks and other financial institutions began learning how to recognize unusual account activity that might indicate fraud or financial exploitation, the New York Times reported. The pilot program went so well that one of Maine’s senators, Susan M. Collins (R), introduced legislation to take it national. The result, the Senior Safe Act, which became law in May, gives banks that accept such training more certainty that they would not be punished for disclosing account information to the authorities. Without that protection, banks and their employees run the risk of being sued by clients, or fined or penalized by regulators. "As baby boomers hit their milestones and retire, there’s been a growing focus on what we can report,” said Robert G. Rowe, associate chief counsel for the American Bankers Association. “The law gives us safe harbor to report suspicious activity.”

U.S. Senate Republicans yesterday sought to correct a section of President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul that threatened to prevent sexual harassment victims from claiming a tax deduction for the legal costs they incur while pursuing their cases, Reuters reported. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dated yesterday, all 14 Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee said that they wanted to clarify Congress’ intent on three separate tax provisions as the administration implements the Republican tax bill that Trump signed into law last December. Republicans say they intend to introduce a technical corrections bill. But the prospects for a legislative fix are clouded by ongoing partisan gridlock in Congress, raising the possibility of wide-ranging unintended consequences. The Trump administration is implementing the new law at a time when allegations of sexual harassment against dozens of high-profile men in media, entertainment, business and politics, including in Congress, have led to a wave of lawsuits and settlements.

A bipartisan bill co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) earlier this year to require companies to file for bankruptcy in their main place of business has garnered no support among fellow lawmakers, Warren is continuing to push for the legislation, WSJ Bankruptcy Pro reported. Troubled by the overwhelming number of debt-burdened companies seeking protection from creditors in Delaware or New York courts regardless of where they are headquartered, Sen. Warren and Sen. Cornyn last January introduced the Bankruptcy Venue Reform Act. If passed, the bill would require corporations to file for bankruptcy in the district where their principal place of business is located, not simply where they are incorporated or where they operate much-smaller affiliates. No other lawmakers have signed on to the bill, according to Congress.gov, but Sen. Warren raised the topic last month in a speech to the New England Council, a regional business group, in Boston. “Why did the Boston Herald file bankruptcy in Delaware?” she asked her audience, noting that the newspaper’s retirees, suppliers and current employees are in Boston. “Last time I looked, we have a bankruptcy court in Boston — a court whose judges are excellent,” she said. The Boston Herald filed for chapter 11 last December. Citing a recent study, Sen. Warren said that, of the 159 biggest bankruptcies between 2007 and 2013, about 80 percent filed in either Delaware, where many businesses are incorporated, or Manhattan, the epicenter of the bankruptcy bar.

Sen. Marco Rubio says that going on leave from work to care for a family member should not be a "bankruptcy-inducing event," as many workers across the country are forced to choose between taking a paycheck or spending time with their newborn children, CBSNews.com reported. Rubio, along with Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Missouri), plans to introduce the Economic Security for New Parents Act in the Senate to help parents get two months of paid leave, offset by funds from their future Social Security benefits. It would be the first new leave option for families since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. That law ensures 12 weeks of unpaid leave for those seeking to care for a family member. Under Rubio's bill, employees would then delay taking their Social Security benefit for three to six months when they reach retirement age.