The U.S. Senate voted 53-47 on Wednesday to block the Stop Insider Trading Act, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance a bill meant to restrict stock trading by members of Congress. No Senate Democrat voted to move the measure forward, leaving a Republican-authored reform effort dead for now despite mounting public frustration over lawmakers trading stocks tied to industries they oversee.
The vote fell strictly along party lines, according to CBS News, which reported that the measure failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance. The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, would have prohibited members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks, according to The Hill. It passed the House in July by a vote of 232-198, with 13 Democrats joining Republicans in support, the outlet reported.
What the Blocked Bill Would Have Actually Done
Despite its tough-sounding name, the Stop Insider Trading Act contained carve-outs that became a flashpoint in the Senate debate. The legislation would have allowed lawmakers to keep stocks they already own and to buy private stocks, per the same Hill report. It also would have required covered individuals to publicly disclose any intended stock sale at least a week in advance, per CBS News.
According to congressional bill-tracking records, the notice requirement would have given covered members, spouses or dependents a window of seven to 14 days before selling a covered investment to file public notice with the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate, who would then publish it online. The same records describe a covered investment as a security issued by a publicly traded company or a comparable economic interest, and the bill's introduced text would have amended chapter 131 of title 5 to impose the restrictions on members and their families.
Democrats Say the Bill Falls Short — and Point to a Poison Pill
Senate Democrats argued the measure did not go far enough, pushing instead for an outright ban covering members of Congress along with the president and his administration, according to CBS News. Many Democrats favor a total trading ban for lawmakers, and some want that prohibition extended further, to the president, executive-branch officials and the Supreme Court, according to the New York Post.
Democrats also objected to a provision in the House version requiring voters to show valid identification at the polls, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer branded a poison pill, per the Hill's reporting. CBS News reported Democrats argued the voter-ID language would gut mail voting and make casting a ballot harder for eligible citizens.
Schumer did not hold back in his assessment of the bill itself. “The Republican toothless stock-trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine,” he said, according to CBS News. Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended the measure at a press conference the day before the vote, calling it straightforward. “It's a pretty simple measure,” Thune said, “but an important way to ensure that members of Congress are held to the standards that America should be able to expect of their representatives.”
A Pattern of Blocked Reform Efforts
Wednesday's failed vote is not the first time a stock-trading restriction has stalled in the Senate this year. In June, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming objected to a unanimous consent request by Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia that would have banned senators from buying or selling stocks and cryptocurrency, the Hill reported. In July, Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio blocked a similar request from Sen. Alex Padilla of California to pass the bipartisan HONEST Act, which would have barred the president, vice president and members of Congress from owning, acquiring or selling individual stocks and digital assets.
The repeated standoffs come against a backdrop of public data on congressional trading activity. Capitol Markets reports that members of Congress have disclosed 44,690 stock trades on the public record, including 9,139 filed so far this year, and that about 25% of those trades were made by a member who sits on a committee that directly oversees the relevant company's industry. Microsoft topped its list of most-traded stocks with 634 trades, followed by Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon and Alphabet Class A shares. A separate December analysis from Common Cause found that Congress members had made 13,324 trades totaling $635.57 million in the year covered by its study — a different dataset and timeframe than Capitol Markets' tally, reflecting the two groups' differing methodologies.
Common Cause also cited polling showing broad appetite for reform: 86% of Americans want Congress to prohibit its members from trading stocks, including 88% of Democrats and 87% of Republicans, the group reported. At the time of its article, Common Cause found that 202 representatives and 56 senators in the 119th Congress owned stock, and it noted that 90 former House members have voiced support for a congressional stock-trading ban, recommending it be attached to a must-pass legislative package before year's end.
With Republicans holding slim majorities in both chambers heading into the November 3 midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress next year, Wednesday's failed vote leaves the debate over lawmakers' stock portfolios unresolved — and likely to resurface as both parties look for ways to answer voter anger over the issue.
