House passes bill to restrict stock trading by members of Congress

Washington — The House on Wednesday passed a bill placing some limits on congressional stock trading, but the lack of tougher restrictions and the inclusion of a voter ID provision complicated its support among Democrats. 

Lawmakers approved the bill in a 232 to 198 vote, with 13 Democrats voting with all Republicans in favor. 

The Stop Insider Trading Act, introduced by Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin in January, would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks. It would also require lawmakers to publicly disclose each intended sale of stocks at least seven days in advance to the House clerk or Senate secretary. The penalty for a violation is $2,000 or 10% of the transaction’s value, whichever is greater, as well as the forfeiture of any realized gains from the sale. 

The measure “ensures that lawmakers cannot use their position to profit off insider information they may garner while serving in Congress,” Steil said Monday. 

Republicans combined the stock trading bill with an unrelated provision that requires voters to show photo identification when voting in federal elections, as President Trump pushes for strict new voter-eligibility rules. 

Democrats panned the bill as not going far enough, pushing for an outright ban on members of Congress from owning stocks and for those limits to also extend to the president and 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. 

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington called the measure “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. 

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.