Senate vote stalls Stop Insider Trading Act amid dispute over stock rules and voter ID

The U.S. Senate failed on September 30 to advance the House-passed Stop Insider Trading Act in Washington, voting 53-47 on a procedural motion that needed 60 votes. The result leaves proposed limits on lawmakers’ stock purchases stalled amid a dispute over the bill’s reach and an attached federal voter ID requirement.

The vote concerned cloture on a motion to proceed to the bill: whether the Senate could move toward debating it. It was not a final vote to pass or reject the legislation. Independent reporting by Roll Call and CBS News says Democrats opposed advancing the measure, while Republicans backed it.

The White House described the outcome as every Senate Democrat voting against the act. That characterization leaves out the procedural nature of the vote and the 60-vote threshold. The Guardian reported that Democrats and independents voted no. The result shows the bill lacked the support needed to advance; it does not mean its proposed restrictions became law.

What the Stop Insider Trading Act would restrict

The bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying new individual stocks. It would still allow lawmakers to retain stocks they already own and to sell them, according to Roll Call. Sellers would have to give public notice at least seven days and no more than 14 days before an intended sale. Widely held investment funds would be exempt.

The House approved the bill in July on a mostly party-line vote, according to Roll Call. CBS News reported that all House Republicans and 13 Democrats supported it. The Senate vote was therefore a separate step for a measure that had already cleared one chamber, rather than a replay of the House vote described in the White House release.

Why Democrats opposed the Senate vote

Democrats argued that the proposed stock rules were too narrow because lawmakers could keep existing portfolios and the restrictions would not cover the president or members of the administration. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the bill ‘as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine,’ according to Roll Call and CBS News. He also argued that Republicans had designed it to fail.

The bill also contained a photo ID requirement for voting in federal elections, a provision separate from congressional stock trading. Democrats called it a ‘poison pill’ and said it could make voting more difficult. CBS News reported their concern that it would affect mail voting. The stock-trading dispute and the election rule were therefore part of the same Senate decision, even though they address different issues.

Republicans defended both parts of the legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune called it a ‘common-sense piece of legislation,’ CBS News reported, and said it would hold members of Congress to standards Americans should expect. Roll Call reported his accusation that Democrats were politicizing the issue ahead of the elections. The White House said President Donald Trump supported the act and blamed Senate Democrats for blocking it.

What the failed vote means for congressional stock rules

Lawmakers are already subject to the 2012 STOCK Act, which makes clear that insider trading is illegal for members of Congress, according to Roll Call. Its disclosure requirements have nevertheless drawn criticism as easy to evade or miss. The unresolved debate is over how much further Congress should go: restricting new purchases, prohibiting ownership, or extending rules to officials outside Congress.

Roll Call reported that a stricter proposal led by Republican Senator Josh Hawley advanced from a Senate committee the previous summer but had not reached the floor. That measure would address both trading and ownership and cover the president, vice president and their families. Its existence shows that the House-passed act was not the only approach under consideration, but the Senate has not enacted either proposal.

Senators were preparing to leave Washington until after the midterm elections, Roll Call reported, making the failed vote a near-term setback for the House-passed measure. The cited reporting does not establish whether or when Senate leaders will try again. For now, the September 30 result is a failure to open debate, with the competing proposals for broader stock restrictions and the disputed voter ID provision unresolved.