Democrats block bill restricting lawmakers from trading stocks

Democrats teamed up against a Republican-backed bill aimed at curbing lawmakers' stock market activities, arguing the restrictions were insufficient and criticized an unrelated voter ID provision. The Stop Insider Trading Act, which passed the House in July with bipartisan support, floundered in the Senate on Wednesday when it fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance.

The bill would have prohibited members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying publicly traded stocks and required them to disclose any intended sales at least a week in advance. However, Democrats contended that a complete ban on stock trading for lawmakers, including the president and his administration, was necessary.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the bill as ineffective, accusing Republicans of designing it to fail and noting that it excluded the White House from the crackdown on corruption. Democrats also took issue with the voter ID requirement, seeing it as a tactic to prompt them to vote against the stock trading provisions.

The bill's push came as senators were about to leave for campaign season, with several other measures, including one aimed at protecting Americans from energy costs linked to data centers, also up for a vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended the bill as a common-sense measure that held Congress to the same standards as its representatives, emphasizing its limits on stock trading and the voter ID requirement.