Lawmakers' stock trading bill falls short in Senate

Nina Heller, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 30, 2026

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WASHINGTON — A bill to rein in stock trading by members of Congress did not clear a first procedural hurdle to advance in the Senate on Wednesday, after passing the House on a mostly party-line vote in July.

Democrats tanked a motion to invoke cloture on proceeding to the bill in a 53-47 vote, which fell seven votes shy of the 60 required to advance the measure. The vote stymied any chance of further action on the topic as senators get ready to head out of town until after the midterm elections.

Dubbed the Stop Insider Trading Act, the bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying new stocks. It would allow lawmakers to keep the stocks they already own and continue to sell them, but would require them to give public notice at least seven days and no more than 14 days in advance.

Violators could face fees imposed by the House and Senate Ethics panels of either $2,000 or 10 percent of the value of the transaction, whichever is greater, along with the net gain realized. An exception is included for widely held investment funds.

Prior to passage in the House, Republicans added unrelated language that would require Americans to show photo ID at the polls. That provision has been a rallying cry for President Donald Trump and many congressional Republicans as the November elections approach.

But it infuriated some Democrats, who called the voter ID provision a “poison pill.”

Senators this week traded accusations of using the bill to juice their midterm campaign messaging, with Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., saying the bill was “as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine” and “would make voting more difficult in every state than it is now.”

Meanwhile, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Democrats “can’t take yes for an answer” and were “trying to politicize everything going into the election.”

Members of both parties acknowledged that the bill would not fully ban stock trading in Congress, since it would still allow them to profit from sales. Questions around trading have simmered for years, with some lawmakers commanding sizable portfolios and beating the market even as they routinely encounter sensitive information in the course of their jobs.

A 2012 law known as the STOCK Act already makes it clear that insider trading is illegal for lawmakers, but its disclosure requirements are easy for them to flout, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Calls to act on the issue have gained steam, but disagreements remain on how far any ban should go and who should be covered.

Last summer, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to advance a bill that would ban both trading and ownership of stocks by lawmakers, the president and vice president and their spouses and dependent children. Led by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that more stringent measure has yet to see action on the Senate floor.

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