Stop Insider Trading Act

This bill is two unrelated measures voted under one title. The first, the Stop Insider Trading Act, bars Members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from buying individual stocks and other covered investments while in office, requires advance public notice before a covered sale, and sets fees and enforcement through the supervising ethics office. The second, folded in on the floor as the text of the Voter ID Act, amends the Help America Vote Act to require voters to show a valid physical photo ID to cast a ballot in a federal election, provides a provisional ballot when they cannot, and directs states to notify people of the photo-ID requirement when they register to vote. A yes vote endorsed both the congressional stock-trading ban and the federal voter photo-ID mandate together.

Stop Insider Trading Act

This bill generally prohibits Members of Congress and their spouses and dependent children from purchasing stocks and requires public notice before these individuals may sell stocks.

Specifically, Members of Congress and the spouses and dependent children of Members of Congress may not purchase covered investments. Between 7 and 14 days before a Member or a covered spouse or dependent sells a covered investment, the relevant Member must file public notice of the intent to sell with the Clerk of the House of Representatives or the Secretary of the Senate, as appropriate. The Clerk or Secretary must publish this notice online. If the individual decides not to sell the covered investment, the notice must be withdrawn.

Under the bill, a covered investment is a security issued by a publicly traded company or a comparable economic interest. Some investments are exempt, including interest in a widely held investment fund and certain investments held in a trust.

Violations of these provisions are subject to a fee and, in the case of a purchase, a requirement to sell the covered investment. The fee must equal (1) the greater of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction value, and (2) any net gain realized from the transaction during a specified period. The fee may not be paid using campaign donations or Members’ official allowances.

Certain transactions by covered spouses and dependents are exempt, including transactions made on behalf of another person or made as part of compensation from the individual’s employer.

The Congressional Research Service summary, reported to House, of Feb 3, 2026, served by api.congress.gov.

At least 21 organizations named this measure in a lobbying filing. A floor, not a total: they were counted by the client name on 30 quarterly reports filed by 2 lobbying firms and by 18 organizations lobbying for themselves in 2026 Q1, 2026 Q2 and 2026 Q3. An organization that lobbied this measure without naming it is not counted here.

1 of those filings did not cite this bill by number. They named a short title it shares with its Senate companion, S 4134, so the reference belongs to the pair rather than to one chamber’s vehicle.

The filings record that lobbying was reported on the measure. The form has no per-bill dollar figure and no field for a position, so nothing here says how much was spent or which side an organization took.

5 of them, in no ranking: Public Citizen; Campaign Legal Center, Inc.; P Street Project, Inc.; Heritage Action for America; Project on Government Oversight. Listed as filed, in the order the filings were read, and 16 others are not shown. These are not the largest, the earliest or the most active: we keep five names per measure, and the filings give no ranking.

From the LD-2 quarterly lobbying filings published at lda.gov by the Senate Office of Public Records. Read for 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1, 2026 Q2 and 2026 Q3. Our copy holds 24 fewer filings for 2025 Q1, 39 fewer filings for 2025 Q2, 42 fewer filings for 2025 Q3, 33 fewer filings for 2025 Q4, 28 fewer filings for 2026 Q1, 48 fewer filings for 2026 Q2 and 218 fewer filings for 2026 Q3 than the Senate's register counts, so those quarters are the filings we could read rather than every one filed. 2026 Q4 is still inside its filing window, so that quarter is only the filings posted so far.