House Passes Bill Banning Lawmaker Stock Trades
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- The US House of Representatives passed the Stop Insider Trading Act in a 232-198 vote on Wednesday, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration the following day.
- Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI), the bill's sponsor, said the legislation 'ensures no lawmaker can profit off of insider information' and outlined penalties of a $2,000 fine or 10% of the transaction, plus disgorgement of profits.
- The bill requires members of Congress to provide seven days' notice before selling stocks they already hold, a provision critics say creates a major loophole by allowing existing investments to remain.
- Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Thursday that the bill 'has major loopholes' because lawmakers can continue owning and selling stocks, adding 'not gonna fly in the Senate' and calling for an outright ban on congressional stock ownership.
- Unlike the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act under Senate consideration, Steil's bill is limited to members of Congress and does not cover the president, vice president or their families, though CLARITY's proposed text would bar all US public officials from issuing or sponsoring tokens until 2029.
- Steil separately introduced the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act in June to bar certain public officials, their spouses and children from wagering on prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, with a soldier reportedly making more than $400,000 on Maduro's removal and Trump's teleprompter operator reportedly making over $100,000 on his speeches.
Why it matters: The 232-198 House passage is a milestone on insider-trading restrictions for federal lawmakers, but Senator Warren's immediate objection that lawmakers can still own and sell stocks signals a likely Senate fight and possible rewrite — and because the bill deliberately excludes the president and vice president, the legislative gap for executive-branch trading stays open.
