Republicans Advance Stock-Trading Bill With Limited Restrictions
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- House Republicans advanced a diluted version of the Stop Insider Trading Act, which imposes some restrictions on stock trading by lawmakers but allows significant exceptions, such as keeping and selling existing stocks with notice and permitting family members to trade freely.
- The bill, supported by Speaker Mike Johnson, bans lawmakers from buying individual stocks but permits reinvestment of dividends and has loopholes critics say undermine the intent of banning congressional stock trading.
- Democrats criticized the bill as insufficient and accused Republicans of protecting insider trading under the guise of ethics reform, highlighting that the legislation contains major loopholes that weaken its effectiveness.
- The bill cleared committee and is moving toward a full House vote, despite bipartisan public support for a stricter ban on congressional stock trading.
