House votes on long-awaited stock trading ban heres who the largest traders are
WASHINGTON — After months of bickering, the House will finally get a chance Wednesday to vote on legislation to impose sweeping restrictions on stock trades by lawmakers and their spouses.The “Stop Insider Trading Act” is perhaps the closest Congress has come to tightening its rules on stock trading since 2012, but it still faces an uphill battle to become law.Nestled in the bill are provisions requiring voters to present an ID in order to cast a ballot, something that is a poison pill for many Democrats.Then, even if it clears the House, there appears to be little appetite for the “Stop Insider Trading Act” in its current form in the Senate.“Republicans are trying to pull a trick this week.
They say we are voting on an ‘insider trading’ bill, but have snuck in massive SAVE Act-style voter suppression measures to it,” Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) declared.
“This is a GOP effort to sabotage national mail-in voting, disguised as a trading ban.”“I’m voting NO.”Still, the measure is among the most significant attempts to police and stamp out the risk of insider trading by lawmakers since the passage of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act in 2012.Under the bill, lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children are restricted from purchasing individual stocks of publicly traded companies, with few exceptions, such as certain investment funds, while in office.The bill also stipulates that lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children can’t sell stock without filing notice between 7–14 days in advance.Violators will get hit with a fee and be subject to ethics scrutiny.Critics argue that, despite proponents’ characterizations of the bill, it’s not a true ban on congressional stock trading, because lawmakers will still have the ability to sell their assets.Here’s who could be impacted the most if the bill were to ever become law, based on data from Quiver Quantitative.
Notably, calculating exact numbers is...