The New Democrat Coalition is rolling out another governing agenda for what it would do if Democrats win the majority in the House — and this time the group is hoping to earn the trust of Americans by focusing on rooting out corruption.
Expanding on an affordability-driven plan released earlier this year, the group of more than 100 House Democrats wants to crack down on loopholes that could assist insider trading, prediction-market schemes and cryptocurrency scams that any members of Congress or officials in the Trump administration engage in, including the president.
Lawmakers trading stocks using nonpublic information is already against the law, but there is a growing concern among both parties that some members are profiting off their jobs and that the public doesn’t trust Congress. Democrats have recently honed in on reforming prediction markets and addressing President Donald Trump’s alleged conflicts of interest related to digital currencies and foreign gifts.
“The stench of corruption permeates every action of this administration,” Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, the chair of the group, told NOTUS in an interview. “It not only erodes confidence in government but makes future governing more challenging as we work to undo the illicit entanglements of the current administration.”
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The blueprint comes at a time when trust in government is at a historic low. Just about 17% of Americans say they trust the federal government, according to a Pew Research Center survey taken in September 2025, just before the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history began.
As part of the corruption proponent in what the group is calling the “New Dems American Promise,” members are also looking to reassert Congress’ power, establish a code of ethics for the Supreme Court and restore the Voting Rights Act, which was further weakened last week when the high court gutted a key tenet that protected minority voters.
This latest policy push is a culmination of a yearlong effort that included 11 road events in members’ districts, with contributions from working groups assigned to specific policy projects.
The 65-page document is largely based on affordability. In it, the New Democrat Coalition lays out a plan to address health care, immigration and issues facing rural communities. The group’s hope is to extend the Affordable Care Act for three years, implement national paid family- and medical-leave programs and invest in rural communities by surging resources to build broadband and housing.
“We are trying to demonstrate that it’s not enough to be just anti-Trump in this upcoming election. You have to have a vision for working families,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski told NOTUS in an interview.
Democrats are aware there is very little wiggle room to get things done while in the minority, and Schneider acknowledged that there are fewer Republicans willing to cross their party to vote with Democrats. But some of the measures the New Democrat Coalition has proposed have Republican support.
Budzinski hopes there’s enough bipartisan agreement over streamlining and reforming permitting — in particular on measures that have already been cleared through the proper processes.
“Clearly President Trump does not like offshore wind, but these are projects, like Revolution Wind, that have been permitted through the proper process,” Budzinski said, referring to a wind-energy project serving Rhode Island and Connecticut. “What we’re saying as some of us, as Democrats and Republicans, is that there should be certainty once a permanent project has been permitted, that that project then gets built.”
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