Washington — The House voted Wednesday to approve legislation aimed at curbing some congressional stock trading, though the bill’s limited reach and an added voter ID requirement left many Democrats sharply divided.
The measure passed 232 to 198, with 13 Democrats joining every Republican in support.
The Stop Insider Trading Act, introduced in January by Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil, would bar members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying publicly traded stocks. It would also require lawmakers to notify the House clerk or Senate secretary at least seven days before selling stocks. Violators would face a penalty of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction’s value, whichever is higher, and would have to surrender any gains made from the sale.
Steil said Monday that the proposal is designed to “ensure that lawmakers cannot use their position to profit off insider information they may garner while serving in Congress.”
Republicans attached the stock trading restrictions to a separate provision requiring voters to present photo identification in federal elections, a move that comes as President Trump advocates for tougher voter-eligibility rules.
Democrats criticized the legislation as too weak, arguing that Congress should impose a full ban on lawmakers owning individual stocks and extend similar restrictions to the president and senior administration officials.
“This bill would, in fact, allow members of Congress to continue to own and trade individual stocks. The bill would let members of Congress keep every single share of stock they currently own. The bill would allow members to liquidate their holdings at any time, profiting off years of ballooning investment portfolios. There is no divestiture required under this bill, and crucially, the bill does nothing to rein in the unprecedented, absurd, and deeply offensive corruption currently taking place in the White House,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York said Monday.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, dismissed the legislation as “a fake stock trading ban.”
There have been various efforts in Congress to pass a congressional stock trading ban, with proponents saying current law does little to discourage public officials from using their positions for personal gain. Under a 13-year-old law known as the STOCK Act, members of Congress, executive branch officials and other federal employees are prohibited from using nonpublic information for their financial benefit. The law also requires officials to disclose stock trades exceeding $1,000 within 45 days. But no member of Congress has ever been prosecuted under the current law, despite violations.
Late last year, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida followed through on a monthslong threat to try to force a vote on the bipartisan Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from owning or trading individual stocks. But her discharge petition to circumvent GOP leaders and bring the bill to the House floor is still far short of the 218 signatures needed to move forward.
READ MORE: The story of Lara Logan: An update on her assault case and current whereabouts
A discharge petition led by Morelle on a Democratic measure of a similar name, the Restore Trust in Government Act, is much closer to the threshold, but still dozens of names short. The measure would ban members of Congress, the president, vice president and their families from owning or trading individual stocks.
After Luna filed her discharge petition, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was working with Steil, the chairman of the House Administration Committee, to find other paths to address the issue. Steil’s bill was born of that effort.
Last year, a bill spearheaded by GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri to ban lawmakers, the president, vice president and their families from owning stocks advanced out of committee, but has since sat idle in the upper chamber.
GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the lead sponsor of the Restore Trust in Congress Act, called for Steil’s stock trading bill to get a vote without the voter ID provision in recognition of the bipartisan negotiations that led to Wednesday’s vote.
“I think we should be having a straight up-or-down vote on the stock trading bill,” Roy said during floor debate Wednesday. “I think my friends that worked in good faith to do that deserve that on both sides of the aisle.”
“I’m not done this year demanding that we have a straight up-or-down vote on stock trading,” he added.
