House Republicans narrowly passed a GOP priority bill Wednesday to prohibit congressional lawmakers from purchasing publicly traded stocks and require voters to show a photo ID at the polls.
The vote fell closely along party lines, passing 232-198, with 13 Democrats voting in favor of the bill.
Republicans this week slipped in the voter ID provision, which is one of President Trump’s top priorities but is hotly opposed by Democrats, all but assuring the bill dies in the Senate.
Rep. Bryan Steil, the Wisconsin Republican who led the bill, called the voter ID stipulations “common sense.”
“You have to show a photo ID to fly, to open a bank account, buy a beer, more recently, to enjoy a never-ending pasta bowl at Olive Garden,” he said on the House floor Wednesday. “But you don’t have to show an ID to vote.”
This is the first major congressional stock trading ban to receive a vote on the floor of the House, as other proposed bills to ban lawmakers’ stock trades have stalled since the STOCK Act of 2012.
The push to crack down on lawmakers’ stock trading gained urgency as voters’ confidence and trust in Congress sinks to near an all-time low — a figure cited by the bill’s sponsors.
Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, scolded his party for tacking on the voter-ID requirements, saying on social media that it was “not to get Dems to vote for voter-ID, but to get them to vote against the stock trading ban, so they can use it in the Nov. election.”
“If we really wanted to ban stock trading for members of Congress, we would offer stand-alone legislation and could get a large bipartisan majority, and the bill would have a chance of passing in the Senate,” he wrote Wednesday on social media.
The bill, known as the Stop Insider Trading Act, would ban members of Congress and their spouses and dependent children from purchasing certain investments — a security issued by a publicly traded company or a comparable economic interest — while exempting some investments and transactions.
It would require that, at least a week before a lawmaker, spouse or dependent sells a covered investment, the member of Congress file public notice of the intent to sell, which would be published online.
Those who violate the rule would also be obligated to pay a $2,000 fee or 10% of the investment’s value, whichever is greater, as well as any net gains from the transaction.
Still, it is not a full ban, drawing criticism from Democrats who want more stringent stock-trading prohibitions for both lawmakers and executive branch officials.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal accused Republicans of pushing a “fake stock trading ban” because it does not overtly ban stock trading.
“Their bill allows members to still purchase private stocks, keep public stocks that they already own and act on legislative matters that directly increase the value of their stocks,” the Washington Democrat said. “It allows members to continue selling stocks that they know will decrease in value based on insider information they got while in Congress.”
Democrats have an alternative proposal that includes a stock-trading ban for the president and vice president: the Restore Trust in Government Act, sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island Democrat.
“This bill is the Democratic proposal for a more comprehensive and robust stock trading ban than the Republican plan,” Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, said during floor debate.
He said extending the ban to the White House was necessary to address a “level of corruption that we have never, ever seen in the White House.”
President Trump has come under intense scrutiny for his and his family’s business dealings while he occupies the Oval Office.
Federal financial disclosures and investigative reports have revealed Mr. Trump’s investment accounts made over 21,000 trades in 2025 totaling between $600 million and $1.86 billion, sparking significant public scrutiny, conflict-of-interest concerns and congressional inquiries.
Several lawmakers have also come under scrutiny for their stock moves.
Mr. Roy reported a partial sale of Atlas Energy Solutions, a Texas frac-sand producer directly exposed to federal energy and public-lands policy. The Freedom Caucus policy chair, who supports Mr. Steil’s bill but has advocated for more stringent rules, is also pushing hard for pairing the stock ban with voter ID.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, California Democrat, sits on House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs, and disclosed a partial sale of Qualcomm stock — a company deeply tied to the semiconductor and China export-policy fights that fall directly under her committees — in May worth roughly $500,000 to $1 million.
The Stop Insider Trading Act would only ban new purchases going forward.
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