Democrats block bill restricting lawmakers from trading stocks

Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked a bill sponsored by vulnerable GOP incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts (Neb.) to restrict members of Congress from buying new stocks of publicly traded companies, arguing the legislation didn’t go far enough to crack down on possible corruption.

The Stop Insider Trading Act failed by a vote of 53-47. No Democrat voted in support of the measure.

It needed 60 votes to advance on the Senate floor.

Ricketts, who is facing a competitive race in Nebraska, argued before the vote that his bill would “ban congressional insider trading” and touted it as a “commonsense” reform that “we need to pass.”

It passed the House in July by a vote of 232-198 with the support of 13 Democrats.

“Congress’s approval rating is only 15 percent. Why do Americans have such a lack of faith in our institutions? Well, in part, because of what has happened with trading in the Congress,” Ricketts said on the Senate floor before the vote.

Ricketts has been accused by his campaign opponent, independent Dan Osborn, of profiting handsomely from his stock portfolio during his time in the Senate.

Osborne slammed Ricketts for making an estimated $10 million in market gains in April of last year, when stocks bounced back after President Trump eased off of his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) panned Ricketts’s proposal as a “feeble” attempt at reform that would still allow lawmakers to engage in profitable transactions.

“Only Senate Republicans would dare call a bill that permits members of Congress to continue to own, sell and in some instances buy stocks a stock-trading ban. They can’t be serious. The Republican bill is a permission slip for corruption, not a stock-trading ban,” Schumer declared on the Senate floor.

The legislation would have banned lawmakers from buying new stocks in publicly traded companies and would have required them to provide advance notice of plans to sell stocks.

But the legislation would have allowed lawmakers to keep the stocks they already own and to buy private stocks.

Schumer argued that the Senate Homeland Security Committee last year approved a stronger bipartisan bill.

He said House Republicans watered it down before passing it over the summer and added a “poison pill” by adding a provision that would require people to present valid voter identification when voting.

“Republicans want to explicitly allow members to continue trading stocks in privately held companies, including companies the members oversee, a formula for disaster and corruption,” he said.

Schumer criticized the legislation on Tuesday for not including a ban on President Trump trading stocks, noting that Trump and his money managers executed approximately 28,700 trades between January 2025 and June 2026, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

Democrats have attacked Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), who faces a tough race in Alaska, for expanding his net worth through stock trades during his time in the Senate.

Senate Democrats this month accused Sullivan of tripling his wealth while in office and pointed to reporting that he sold off shares after attending a closed-door meeting before those stocks dipped.

WinSenate, a super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership, has aired a new ad featuring a line cook and bartender from Homer, Alaska, who criticizes Sullivan for having “nearly quadrupled his net worth” and “cutting healthcare for Alaskans” while in Congress.

Wednesday’s vote marked the latest instance of a proposal to limit stock trading by members of Congress failing on the Senate floor.

In June, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) objected to a unanimous consent request by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) to ban senators from buying or selling stocks and cryptocurrency.

In July, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) objected to a request by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) to pass the bipartisan HONEST Act, which would have prohibited the president, vice president and members of Congress from owning, acquiring or selling individual stocks and digital assets.

Moreno at the time dismissed the effort as a “publicity show.”