Here is what the bill would have done. Members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children could not buy new shares in publicly traded companies. Stocks they already owned could stay. Selling those shares would have required a public notice filed 7 to 14 days in advance. Violations carried a penalty of the greater of $2,000 or 10 percent of the trade, plus forfeiture of any gain. The president and vice president were not covered. The House had already passed it in July, 232-198, with 13 Democrats joining Republicans. Under the law that remains, the 2012 STOCK Act, members can still trade — they only have to disclose it, usually within 45 days.
Democrats gave two reasons for killing it. First, they said it was not a real ban. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it "a permission slip for corruption, not a stock trading ban" and "as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine." Their complaint was the carve-outs: lawmakers could keep everything they already own, reinvest dividends into more shares, and a spouse or child could still trade. Senator Jeff Merkley called the bill "a sham." Several Democrats also wanted the same rules applied to the president and White House officials. Second, Republicans had attached photo-ID rules for voting, drawn from the stalled SAVE America Act. Democrats called that a poison pill and said those provisions had already been rejected — Senator Alex Padilla used that phrase in his own floor remarks. Democrats also said they would have opposed the stock language even without the voter-ID add-on, because it did not force members to sell what they already hold.
Republicans said the opposite. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the bill's provisions "strike at the very heart of issues that the American people care deeply about," and said Democrats "can't take yes for an answer." House sponsor Bryan Steil said: "I'm encouraged that 53 Senators voted to ban members of Congress from trading stocks this afternoon. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats filibustered this commonsense ethics reform." He added: "No lawmaker should be able to profit off of insider information." The bill's lead Senate sponsor was Nebraska Republican Pete Ricketts. Not every Republican loved the strategy. Senator Thom Tillis said attaching voter ID "gave them an out for a policy that I think is critically important," calling it "a messaging exercise going bad."
The bill is dead for this session unless it comes back in a lame-duck. Congress can still buy and sell individual stocks. The only change that failed was a ban on new purchases, plus advance notice before a sale.