An audience member raised a specific allegation that Sen. Curtis profited from insider information by buying stock in a COVID-testing company. Curtis denied the claim and said the accuser later apologized. He explained disclosure rules for members of Congress and said his campaign experience prompted him to move personal holdings into exchange-traded funds to avoid perception problems.

"It's not true," Curtis said of the accusation and added that an accuser "later apologized to me." He described the ethics oversight process for congressional trading, noting members must disclose purchases and an ethics office monitors trades.

On government shutdowns, Curtis described a legislative proposal to prevent the practice by changing how appropriations lapse. "If you don't come up with your new (appropriation) within the year, you're still stuck on the old (one)," he said, arguing that staying on last year's spending would eliminate the incentive and harm of shutdowns.

Curtis framed the two replies as part of broader efforts to increase transparency and predictability in governance, and said he is interested in measures that would reduce perception problems and procedural failures that harm public trust.