KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Rep. Dan Crenshaw disclosed a purchase of USOU (United States 3x Oil Fund) on June 1, 2026 — a triple-leveraged oil ETF — while serving on both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The same day he sold AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, and FAS (a leveraged financials ETF).
- Separately, Crenshaw disclosed purchases of Meta put options on April 28 and a sale on May 5 — a span that covered Meta's April 29 earnings release, after which Meta stock declined sharply. Both disclosures were filed approximately one month past the 45-day STOCK Act deadline, constituting a violation.
- Crenshaw's Energy and Commerce Committee jurisdiction includes oil and gas regulation, pipeline approvals, and energy infrastructure policy — areas that directly affect crude oil prices. He has previously violated the STOCK Act multiple times and received only a $200 fine per violation, which the ethics committee may waive.
A congressional filing has two jobs. One is disclosure. The other, unintentionally, is documentation. When a member of Congress who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee buys a product designed to triple the daily return of crude oil futures, and discloses it 45 days later, the filing does both things simultaneously. It reveals the trade and it reveals the committee assignment that makes the trade worth talking about.
What the filing shows
On July 16, 2026, Rep. Dan Crenshaw filed a STOCK Act disclosure covering transactions executed on June 1. The filing showed a purchase of USOU, the United States 3x Oil Fund, in the $1,001 to $15,000 range. USOU is a leveraged ETF designed to deliver three times the daily performance of light sweet crude oil futures. It's not a passive oil sector investment. It's a short-term directional bet on oil price direction, sized with three times the volatility of the underlying commodity.
The same June 1 filing also disclosed sales. Full sales of Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Alphabet (GOOG), each in the $1,001 to $15,000 range. A full sale of FAS, the Direxion Financial Bull 3X Shares, also in the $1,001 to $15,000 range. So on a single day: exited three major tech positions and a leveraged financials ETF, then entered a leveraged oil ETF. That's a specific directional rotation from tech and financials into a leveraged energy bet. On the same day. By a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The USOU product itself is now delisted, which adds a layer of context. It was a niche product designed for very short holding periods. Leveraged ETFs decay over time due to daily rebalancing mechanics — they're not intended as long-term holds. Buying one as a member of the Energy Committee suggests either a short-term directional view on crude prices or a misunderstanding of how the product works, neither of which is reassuring.
The committee assignments — why they matter
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over energy policy including oil and gas exploration, production, refining, and distribution, pipeline construction and safety, and strategic petroleum reserve policy. Committee members receive classified and unclassified briefings on domestic energy production, foreign energy supply disruptions, and the policy levers that affect oil price directly. In 2026, with the Iran war disrupting Strait of Hormuz shipping and crude prices elevated, the committee's work has been directly relevant to short-term oil price movements.
Crenshaw also sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. That assignment provides access to classified information about foreign policy, geopolitical risks, and national security developments — including the kind of early intelligence about escalation or de-escalation in the Middle East that moves oil markets before it becomes public news.
Neither committee membership proves that Crenshaw traded on nonpublic information. What the STOCK Act was designed to prevent is exactly this type of ambiguity: a regulator of an industry taking leveraged directional bets on that industry's commodity price. The law doesn't forbid it. It requires disclosure. The disclosure happened 45 days later, as permitted. And here we are reading it.
The Meta options — and the STOCK Act violation
The June 1 disclosure was filed on time. The Meta options disclosure was not. Crenshaw purchased Meta put options on April 28 and sold them on May 5. Meta reported earnings on April 29. Meta's stock declined sharply after those earnings. Put options increase in value when the underlying stock falls. Crenshaw's put position, opened the day before earnings and closed the week after, would have been profitable if Meta fell on earnings day. Both the purchase and sale disclosures were filed approximately one month past the 45-day STOCK Act deadline.
NOTUS, which reviewed the filings, confirmed this was a STOCK Act violation. The penalty: a $200 initial fine, which the House ethics committee may waive at its discretion. Crenshaw had previously violated the STOCK Act on at least one prior occasion. The $200 fine structure — established in 2012 and never adjusted — has been widely criticized as inadequate to deter violations, particularly for trades of this nature. This is the regulatory framework working exactly as designed, which is the part that's uncomfortable.
The broader pattern in 2026
Crenshaw's 28 trades in 2026 totaling over $1.8 million, concentrated in energy and defense sectors, represent an active trading posture for a sitting member of Congress. Energy accounts for a large portion of his portfolio activity — XOM purchases earlier in the year, the USOU purchase in June, prior USO purchases in previous years. His district is in Texas. His committee seat is on Energy and Commerce. His constituency includes oil and gas industry workers and companies. All of that provides a plausible non-information-based explanation for why he's interested in energy investments.
But the specific instrument matters. Exxon stock is a long-term investment in a company. USOU is a daily-rebalancing leveraged ETF on crude oil futures. These are categorically different instruments. One is a multi-year holding for someone bullish on energy. The other is a short-term tactical bet on crude price direction. When an Energy Committee member makes a leveraged tactical bet on oil prices using a product designed for daily traders, the question the STOCK Act was meant to surface is whether committee-level knowledge about near-term price catalysts informed the timing. The disclosure tells you the bet was made. It doesn't answer that question.
More on how congressional disclosures work and how to use the SEC and congressional filing systems to track them is available through the public disclosure portals.
The one thing beginners should take away
Congressional trading disclosures are not evidence of wrongdoing. They're evidence of activity. Dan Crenshaw bought a leveraged oil ETF on the Energy Committee's jurisdiction the same day he exited tech and financials positions. He also disclosed Meta options trades around Meta's earnings a month late, violating a law that carries a $200 fine that can be waived. All of this is legal and now public. The STOCK Act made it visible precisely so voters, investors, and journalists could see it and draw their own conclusions. The disclosure is working as intended. Whether Congress members should be trading individual stocks and leveraged ETFs while overseeing the industries those instruments are based on is a different question — one the disclosure system answers by showing you the trades, not by answering the harder question underneath them.