USA30 September, 20263 min read
US Senate Blocks Stop Insider Trading Act After Democrats Refuse To Advance Measure
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Senate blocked Stop Insider Trading Act 53-47, failing to reach 60 votes. Democrats opposed, saying the bill doesn't ban trading and adds voter ID provisions.
Senate vote fails
The US Senate blocked the Stop Insider Trading Act in a 53 to 47 vote on Wednesday, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure toward passage. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said the bill was a "common-sense piece of legislation" and argued it would ensure members of Congress are held to standards "that America should be able to expect of their representatives." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor that the bill was "as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine," and he argued Republicans designed the bill "to fail."
“In a 53 to 47 vote that fell along party lines, the measure failed to reach a 60-vote threshold needed to advance.”
The bill would prohibit lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks while requiring lawmakers to publicly disclose each intended sale at least a week in advance, but Democrats said it did not go far enough to outright end the practice. The bill also included a voter ID provision that Democrats argued would gut mail voting, and the Senate halted debate after Democrats refused to provide enough votes to advance the measure.
Voter ID dispute
Senate Democrats blocked the bill over objections to new voter ID requirements that Republicans added, and the party-line vote was 53 to 47. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill Republicans were offering was "Swiss cheese legislating, creating loophole after loophole after loophole," and he called it "a step backward to solving this critical problem." Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised the bill as "something that is broadly supported by the American people," while Democrats argued the voter ID language was a poison pill designed to prompt voters to oppose the stock-trading restrictions.
The legislation prevented lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children from buying new stocks of publicly traded companies while serving in Congress, but it allowed lawmakers to keep stocks they already owned prior to entering Congress and maintain certain investment funds. The House narrowly passed the bill in July, with only 13 Democrats joining Republicans to support it, and the Senate fight came as Republicans sought to turn out their base ahead of the November elections.
What happens next
The bill’s failure, combined with the Senate defeat of unrelated legislation aimed at tamping down households' rising electricity costs, gave Republicans hopes of delivering a new line of attack against Democrats in the closing weeks of the November 3 midterm election campaigns. The fight over how far to go on stock trades came as campaigns leading up to the November 3 midterm elections would determine whether Republicans or Democrats have control next year in each chamber of Congress. Senate Democrats argued the bill fell short of a full ban because it allowed lawmakers to keep their portfolios and let spouses or children trade on their behalf, while Republicans said Democrats picked politics over reform.
“The fight is the latest in years of failed efforts.”
Chuck Schumer told reporters that the effort was "Another desperate Republican attempt to pretend they're fighting corruption" and he said Republicans wanted to "score political points" because they were "drowning in their campaigns." The Senate was scheduled to adjourn this week for its campaign recess period and the chamber was not expected to return until November, leaving the next attempt at cracking down on insider trading to wait until after the midterm elections.