Senate Democrats block bill to limit lawmakers' stock trades

Washington — A Republican-led effort to approve a House-passed stock trading bill fell short in the Senate on Wednesday, with Democrats arguing the restrictions don't go far enough while pushing back against a voter ID provision that they argue would gut mail voting.

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, known as the Stop Insider Trading Act, passed the House in July with the support of all Republicans and 13 Democrats. It would prohibit lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children, from purchasing publicly traded stocks, while requiring that they publicly disclose each intended sale at least a week in advance to limit their ability to profit off insider information.

But Democrats argued that the bill doesn't go far enough, urging that an outright ban is needed for members of Congress — along with the president and members of his administration.

"The Republican toothless stock-trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "And let's be clear: they don't even want it to pass. They designed the bill to fail."

The New York Democrat railed against the legislation earlier this week, while noting it wouldn't apply to the executive branch. He claimed that Republicans "carved the White House out of their supposed crack down on corruption."

Democrats also saw the bill's provision requiring voters to show photo identification when voting in federal elections as a poison pill designed to prompt them to vote against the more popular stock-trading restrictions. The unrelated provision was included in the bill as President Trump has put pressure on Congress to approve elections-related legislation ahead of the midterms.

GOP leaders moved ahead with the vote on Wednesday as senators prepare to leave town to hit the campaign trail, bringing up the vote alongside another bill aimed at shielding Americans from energy costs attributed to data centers later in the day. The votes, which were expected to fall short, aimed to put Democrats on the record on the issues at a time when Senate Republicans face several races that have grown more competitive, putting control of the upper chamber next year into question. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, called the bill a "common-sense piece of legislation," pointing to its limits on stock trading and the voter ID requirement.

"It's a pretty simple measure," Thune said. "But an important way to ensure that members of Congress are held to the standards that America should be able to expect of their representatives." 

Lawmakers have pursued a number of efforts to ban congressional stock trading in recent years. But Schumer argued that the latest bill "isn't a stock-trading ban, it's Republicans' last-ditch effort to save face." If Republicans want to ban stock trading, the New York Democrat said his caucus is "ready to go."