House Passes Bill to Restrict Lawmaker Stock Trading
Qwenews.com – The House narrowly passed a bill to restrict lawmakers from trading stocks after a partisan dispute resulted in a narrower proposal that stops short of an outright ban. The legislation passed 232 to 198 on Wednesday, with only 13 Democrats joining Republicans in support. It remains unclear when or if the Senate will consider the measure.
New Rules for Congressional Trading
Under the new legislation, lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children cannot purchase new stocks of publicly traded companies while serving in Congress. This adds a significant restriction on a highly controversial practice. Lawmakers may still buy private stocks, keep stocks they already owned prior to entering Congress, and maintain certain investment funds. Selling stock would require a seven-to-14-day advance notice.
If violations occur, lawmakers must pay a fee of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction value, whichever is greater, and forfeit any profit from the trade. In the days leading up to the vote, a separate voter ID measure that would add new restrictions on mail-in voting was attached to the bill, further complicating its passage. While the bill led by Bryan Steil, the GOP chairman of the House Administration Committee, adds more constraints than current law, most Democrats opposed it, saying it did not go far enough.
Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner, who co-led a bipartisan bill to ban stock trading that has stalled, criticized the approach. “House Republicans are pushing a voter suppression bill that will upend mail-in-voting and throw the elections into chaos,” Magaziner told CNN. “They are trying to trick members into supporting it by linking it to a partial stock trading ban that falls short of the full Congressional stock trading ban that the American people want.”
Steil defended the legislation on Monday, calling it “critical to restoring public trust in this institution.” He added, “I believe it is time we just stop allowing members to buy new stock. Doing so removes the appearance of impropriety altogether. Americans should be confident that lawmakers are working for them, not for their stock portfolios.”
GOP Rep. Chip Roy, who has long advocated for a complete ban, praised Wednesday’s vote as “a major step toward holding members accountable and restoring trust in government.” “For too long, Americans have watched politicians enrich themselves while asking the public to trust them,” Roy said. “That has to end. I’ve fought since my first term in Congress to ban congressional stock trading because serving in Congress should never be a path to personal profit.”
The debate over lawmaker stock trading has intensified in recent years. Last year, there was hope that a permanent ban would become law with strong bipartisan support. A bipartisan bill was introduced in September 2025, and in December 2025, GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna attempted to bypass House GOP leadership to bring a comprehensive ban to the floor.
Initial support from President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries generated fresh momentum. Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley even voted with Democrats in July 2025 to advance a ban, drawing the ire of Trump about whether the restriction should include the executive branch.
However, proposals eventually diverged and talks stalled. Some Democrats pushed to expand the effort to include the president, vice president, and their spouses, losing Republican support in the process. Lawmaker stock trading has not been reformed since the STOCK Act was passed in 2012, which created disclosure requirements but did little to curb the practice. Polls consistently show widespread support for banning members of Congress from trading stocks.
