WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked a Republican bill that would bar members of Congress from buying stocks. The 53-47 party-line procedural vote fell seven votes shy of the 60 needed to advance the measure.
The Stop Insider Trading Act would have prohibited members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from buying publicly traded stocks and required a seven-day notice period before selling stocks they already owned. Members who violated the rules would have faced a penalty of at least $2,000 or 10% of the transaction.
The bill also included a voter ID attachment, which would have required in-person voters to present photo ID and mail-in voters to include a copy of their ID with their ballots.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb, introduced the bill in the Senate as a companion to the House-passed bill introduced by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis. In the July House vote, the bill passed 232-198 with 13 Democrats in support. The White House endorsed the bill at the time.
“Most Americans are in favor of banning the trading of individual stocks by Members of Congress, and President Trump has called for a stock trading ban to be passed without delay,” the statement read.
Ricketts cited polling that showed that 80% of Americans think Congress is bad at keeping personal finances separate from public office. He also mentioned Congress’ 15% approval rating as a key motivation for the bill.
He singled out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., without specifically naming her, arguing that her public disclosures of her stock trades have influenced how ordinary Americans invest and allowed her to profit.
“The Stop Insider Trading Act is a strong step towards restoring Americans’ faith in their elected officials,” Ricketts said.
Democratic opponents of the bill argued it’s ineffective because it would allow members of Congress to keep existing stocks and continue to trade in privately held companies.
“The republican toothless stock trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
Democrats also objected that the bill did not extend to President Donald Trump, who has traded more stocks than all of Congress combined. He has made nearly 28,700 trades during his second term, according to a Bloomberg analysis published earlier this month.
“While [the bill] claims to try to ban stock trading by Congress, it does nothing to rein in the stock trader in chief, President Trump himself,” Sen. Padilla, D-Calif., said in a press conference Tuesday.
Schumer accused Republicans of abandoning a previous effort made by the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to ban congressional stock trading.
“Now, [Republicans] watered down the ban and created loophole after loophole in this sham legislation,” Schumer said.
Democrats also opposed the voter ID language tacked onto the bill, which required more stringent voter ID rules than any state currently has.
The bill’s language mirrored that of the SAVE America Act, which failed in the Senate earlier this year, and according to the Campaign Legal Center, its list of acceptable forms of identification also failed to account for Tribal identification practices and lacked a fail-safe for Americans who do not possess one of the acceptable forms of ID.
“This is a backdoor effort to basically pass the SAVE Act, which the Senate has rejected over and over again,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said.
Sen. Padilla said the bill’s requirement for mail-in voters to include a copy of their ID in their mail ballot violates the constitutional right to a secret ballot.
Schumer called the voter ID provision a “poison pill” added to deliberately kill the bill.
“The republican bill is a permission slip for corruption, not a stock trading ban,” Schumer said.
