The Stop Insider Trading Act came to a vote on July 22, and it passed 231-198. Every single one of those 198 "no" votes came from a Democrat.
All 217 Republicans voted yes. Not a single one voted to protect the insider-trading gravy train. The entire opposition was Democrats — 198 of them — voting to keep cashing in on information the rest of us don't have.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), would ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks while they're in office. It would impose a minimum penalty of $2,000 or 10 percent of the transaction value — whichever is greater — for violations. Members would be required to provide 7 to 14 days' notice before any stock sale.
"I believe this is our opportunity where we can simply stop members of Congress from trading individual stocks," Congressman Steil said.
Currently, members of Congress operate under the STOCK Act, which requires them to disclose trades within 45 days. Forty-five days AFTER they buy, sell or trade a stock. You could buy stock on Monday based on a classified briefing, watch it rocket on Thursday when the news breaks, sell it Friday, and not tell anyone for a month and a half. That's the system Democrats just voted to preserve.
Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, called the bill a "poison pill." That's an interesting choice of words for legislation that simply says you can't trade stocks using classified information learned in Congress that the rest of the country doesn't get access to until weeks or months later. The only people who'd consider that poisonous are the ones currently drinking from the well.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has been pushing his own version. Hawley's proposal cleared the Senate committee back in July 2025 but has yet to receive a floor vote. "It's not nearly as robust as I would like — but something is better than nothing," Hawley said of the House bill.
These are the same people who run campaign ads about "fighting for working families" and "making the wealthy pay their fair share." They sit in classified briefings about defense contracts, pharmaceutical regulations, and trade policy — then walk across the hall and call their brokers. The STOCK Act was supposed to fix this. It didn't. It just gave them a 45-day head start on the paperwork.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the poster child for congressional stock trading, and the story never really went away because the practice never really stopped. Her husband's trades became so notorious they spawned an entire cottage industry of copycat investors trying to mirror congressional portfolios. The couple is reportedly worth over $250 million now. Nancy only earns $174,000 annually as a member of Congress.
The breakdown tells you everything you need to know about who's actually in this for public service and who's in it for the portfolio returns.
Two hundred and seventeen to one-ninety-eight. Every Republican said stop. Every "no" was a Democrat. The math doesn't require a spreadsheet. It requires a mirror.
