Jul 26, 2026
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Add us on GoogleThe House earlier this week passed legislation that would set new restrictions on stock trading by members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children. It doesn’t seem likely to cross beyond the Senate with critics deriding the measure as an inadequate one that contains “loopholes” and unrelated voting restrictions.
The stock trade bill — known as the “Stop Insider Trading Act” — passed on Wednesday in a 232-198 vote with 13 Democrats siding with every House Republican. Democratic senators, though, aren’t likely to endorse the legislation since lawmakers won’t be compelled to sell off their existing stock portfolio.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts described it as a set of “MAJOR LOOPHOLES.”
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“Lawmakers can continue owning and selling stocks — so it won’t solve the problem,” Warren said in a Thursday X post. “Not gonna fly in the Senate. Members of Congress should not own, buy, or sell stocks.”
Democratic senators also won’t be satisfied with the House GOP’s inclusion of new voting restrictions. In this case, it would also mandate that voters present photo ID to be able to cast a ballot in federal races. The provision is a key plank from the SAVE America Act that President Donald Trump has championed for much of the summer.
What the House-passed stock ban does and doesn’t do
The legislation bans individual stock trading among members of Congress and their families. Yet they are able to keep current stock portfolios intact and reinvest any dividends from their investments. Members would be required to give up to two weeks notice before selling stock, or face financial penalties.
Critics argue the measure will not set up enough guardrails to diminish distrust of elected officials possibly profiting from their position on financial trades.
Congressional lawmakers are already banned from employing nonpublic information for private profit under the 2012 Stock Act. Barring all stock trading by lawmakers and their spouses, though, has drawn overwhelming support among Republican and Democratic voters over the years.
About 48% of members of Congress own individual stocks as of late 2025, according to annual disclosures and blind trust reports reviewed by the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit organization advocating for political transparency.
The CLC argued in a separate memo that the stock trade legislation “fails to address the two inherent problems with congressional stock ownership: the appearance of insider trading and members’ ability to profit from their official position.”
For example, the CLC said that the bill as structured would not have prevented former Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina from selling off $1.7 million in stocks leading up to the pandemic-related stock market crash in April 2020. Burr had chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee and received senators-only briefings about the accelerating spread of coronavirus in the U.S.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Burr regarding the possible use of nonpublic information for financial gain, but cleared him in January 2023 of wrongdoing following a 2.5 year probe.
The CLC went on to describe the legislation as one with “loopholes” that still allows for purchases of cryptocurrencies and commodities among other types of transactions.
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What’s next for a Congressional stock trading ban
The House-passed stock trade legislation isn’t the only version sitting in the Senate. Last July, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved in an 8-7 vote a similar measure that would bar members of Congress and their spouses from buying, selling or holding individual stocks. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, does go one step further in enforcing a stock trading ban.
The restrictions would apply to the president and vice president as well. Lawmakers would only be allowed to purchase Treasury bonds among other safer financial instruments. Hawley was the sole Republican voting with seven Democrats to advance the bill out of committee, and it still hasn’t received a Senate floor vote.
Any Congressional stock trading ban has a significant distance to travel and political obstacles to overcome before reaching the White House. In the case of the current House bill, it’s likely dead on arrival.
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig is a policy and politics journalist based in Washington D.C with a focus on economics. He is experienced in connecting the significance of events in the capital to the lives of everyday Americans whether its taxes, tariffs, interest rates or federal programs.
