House Passes Bill to Curb Lawmakers’ Insider Trading via Stocks

The US House of Representatives has passed the Stop Insider Trading Act, a bill aimed at preventing members of Congress and their immediate families from buying publicly traded stocks. The measure cleared the House on Wednesday by a vote of 232–198 and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Sponsoring Republican Representative Bryan Steil said the legislation is designed to stop lawmakers from profiting from potential insider information and to set penalties for violations. The bill would next be reviewed by the Senate, where key critics argue it still leaves room for conflicts of interest.

Key takeaways

• The House approved the Stop Insider Trading Act in a 232–198 vote, moving the proposal to the Senate.
• Under the bill, Congress members and their spouses and dependent children would be barred from purchasing publicly traded stocks.
• Penalties described by the bill sponsor include a $2,000 fine or 10% of the transaction, plus disgorgement of profits.
• Democratic lawmakers have criticized the bill for allowing members to keep and sell stocks already owned, arguing it does not fully solve the underlying conflict risk.
• Separate from the insider-trading effort, Steil is also linked to legislation addressing prediction market trading by public officials.

House passage and the bill’s penalty structure

According to the House vote results, the legislation advanced on Wednesday after the chamber approved Steil’s bill HB 7008, according to the official Congress.gov record. Steil, speaking on the House floor, framed the measure as a first for the current House on the specific issue and emphasized enforcement.

In describing how violations would be punished, Steil highlighted a penalty that includes a fine of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction, along with disgorgement of profits. He also stated that violators would forfeit gains if they failed to comply with the legislation’s requirements.

The bill’s practical aim is to reduce the possibility that lawmakers could benefit from non-public information gained through their roles. That intention is central to why supporters see the act as a meaningful guardrail against insider trading.

Criticism over “loopholes” and stock ownership rules

Even as the bill cleared the House, criticism emerged quickly from Democrats who argue it does not go far enough to eliminate conflict-of-interest concerns.

Representative and Senate critic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Thursday that the legislation contains major loopholes because lawmakers could still own and sell stocks. Warren’s concern is that allowing ongoing ownership and sale—rather than an outright ban—may not sufficiently address the risk that creates incentives around insider information.

Steil responded to part of that critique by describing a compliance mechanism for members who already hold stocks. He said the bill would require a seven days’ notice before selling assets that lawmakers already own, arguing the notice requirement would deter trading driven by private information.

It remains to be seen how the Senate will treat these competing positions. In practice, the question will likely be whether the seven-day notice and penalties are viewed as adequate deterrence or whether senators will push for a stricter model—such as extending the restrictions beyond purchases to broader ownership rules.

What’s next in the Senate

After House passage, the Stop Insider Trading Act was received in the Senate for consideration on Thursday. The outcome in the upper chamber may hinge on whether enough senators support the bill’s narrower scope—aimed at members of Congress rather than other senior federal officials.

As described in the source, Steil’s measure is limited to restricting investments for members of Congress and does not cover the president or vice president and their families. That distinction matters for how this proposal fits into a broader debate about public official ethics and whether restrictions should be uniform across top executive and legislative roles.

In contrast, the source notes that a separate Senate proposal—associated with the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act—has included restrictions reaching public officials more broadly, including language that would bar certain officials from issuing or sponsoring tokens until 2029. While that crypto-market structure bill is distinct from the stock-trading measure, it illustrates how ethics and market-related restrictions are being considered across different legislative packages.

Link to prediction market trading legislation

The House action on insider stock trading arrives after Steil sponsored another related effort focused on prediction markets. The source reports that Steil previously backed the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act, introduced in June to prevent certain public officials, their spouses, and children from “wagering on public policy issues and political outcomes.”

That proposal drew attention amid real-world incidents highlighted in earlier coverage. The source points to an alleged episode involving a soldier who reportedly placed more than $400,000 betting on Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro on Polymarket, as well as reports that a teleprompter operator for former President Donald Trump allegedly made more than $100,000 betting on Kalshi event contracts connected to words and phrases in speeches.

While these examples are not about Congress members trading on stocks, they reflect the same underlying theme: lawmakers and political insiders face special scrutiny when bets can appear tied to information advantage or influence. In that context, the prediction markets proposal mirrors the stock bill’s penalty framing, including a $2,000 fee or 10% of the value of prohibited bets on the relevant platforms.

Investors and builders in crypto markets may see this as part of a wider regulatory pattern: legislators are increasingly testing whether restrictions should reach political actors using financial rails that operate outside traditional stock exchanges, even when the mechanism is “betting” rather than buying equities.

As the Stop Insider Trading Act moves through the Senate, the key uncertainty is whether senators will accept the bill’s approach—bans on new purchases with notice requirements for existing holdings—or push for stricter rules that would go further on ownership and trading.