Stop Insider Trading Act: How the House Voted 232 to 198, and What Else the Bill Carried

The House of Representatives passed the Stop Insider Trading Act on July 22, 2026 by a vote of 232 to 198. The bill would bar members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from buying publicly traded stock, and would require public notice before they sell.

The yes column held 218 Republicans, 13 Democrats and 1 independent; the no column held 198 Democrats. One Democrat did not vote.

The measure did not reach the floor as a stock-trading bill alone. As considered, it combined those restrictions with voter identification requirements, under a rule the House adopted the previous day, 214 to 211. This article sets out what the bill does, the recorded votes on it and on the rule that carried it, and the statements members published about their own votes.

What Happened

H.R. 7008 was introduced by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) on January 12, 2026. It reached the floor on July 22 under H.Res. 1438, an omnibus rule covering five bills and one concurrent resolution, described in the House record as providing for consideration of H.R. 8800, H.R. 8884, H.R. 7008, H.R. 6955 and H.R. 9770, and of H. Con. Res. 113.

The House took two recorded votes on the bill itself. Roll Call 279 was a motion to recommit, the minority's final procedural opportunity to send a bill back to committee. It failed 211 to 218. Roll Call 280 then passed the bill 232 to 198.

The Office of the Clerk publishes a party breakdown for each roll call. Both are reproduced below. Roll Call 279 divided on party lines; on final passage, 13 Democrats voted with the majority.

What the Bill Does

According to the sponsor's published description, the measure has three operative parts:

• A purchase restriction. Members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children may not buy stock in publicly traded companies.
• Advance notice before selling. A member must file public notice between 7 and 14 days before selling a stock, with the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate.
• Penalties. Ethics committees must assess a fine equal to $2,000 or 10 percent of the investment's value, whichever is greater, and the member forfeits any profit realized on the sale.

Two features follow from that description. The restriction applies to purchases rather than to existing holdings, so a member who already owns stock may continue to hold it. The sale provision requires notice rather than prohibition.

The bill's scope covers the legislative branch. It does not reach the President, the Vice President, the Cabinet or the Supreme Court. Both points are the sponsor's own description; readers can check them against the full bill text.

The Roll Call

Both recorded votes on the bill:

The party breakdown on the motion to recommit, as published on the Clerk's roll-call page for Roll Call 279 and retrieved August 28, 2026:

No Republican voted for the motion and no Democrat voted against it.

The party breakdown on final passage, as published on the Clerk's roll-call page for Roll Call 280, with the member-level records on the same page, both retrieved August 28, 2026:

Every Republican voting supported the bill. Democrats voted 13 to 198 against. The one independent voted with the Republicans on both roll calls. One Democrat, Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-FL-24), is recorded as not voting on final passage. The named members below come from the same Clerk record, retrieved August 28, 2026, which gives surname, party and state; the full name and district number printed here are from this site's legislator records.

The 13 Democrats who voted yes

Castor (FL), Cuellar (TX), Davis (NC), Golden (ME), Gonzalez, V. (TX), Gottheimer (NJ), Kaptur (OH), Lee (NV), Moskowitz (FL), Pappas (NH), Perez (WA), Soto (FL) and Tran (CA).

The complete member-by-member record for both roll calls is available on the Clerk's pages linked above. Congress Vote Tracker records the chamber tallies; you can follow this bill's full vote history here.

What Was in the Package

H.R. 7008 was considered as, in the words of the House Committee on Rules record, “an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 119-38, modified by the amendment printed in part B.” That substitute combined the insider-trading restrictions with voter identification requirements.

On final passage the two policies were put to a single vote, and members could not support or oppose one independently of the other. The Rules Committee record establishes that the combination existed. It does not establish why any individual member voted as they did. Members who published explanations of their own votes are quoted in the next section.

Seventeen amendments were submitted to the Rules Committee. One was made in order and considered as adopted: a manager's amendment from the sponsor addressing an exception for spousal employment compensation. Democratic substitute amendments, including proposals to broaden the accepted forms of identification, to add same-day registration, and to provide identification at no cost, failed in committee on 4 to 8 party-line votes.

Two voter-related measures moved the same week. H.R. 7008 carried voter identification requirements as part of Rules Committee Print 119-38. The SAVE America Act text, as passed by the House, was ordered added to H.R. 8800, the FY2027 defense authorization, as shown in the House Rules Committee record for H.R. 8800. Both records are linked below.

The Rule

H.Res. 1438 was an omnibus rule providing for consideration of six measures: H.R. 8800, H.R. 8884, H.R. 7008, H.R. 6955, H.R. 9770 and H. Con. Res. 113. The House disposed of it in two recorded votes on July 21.

Because the rule covered six measures, including the FY2027 defense authorization and a concurrent resolution, the record does not show which of them drove any individual member's vote on it. Both roll calls are in the Congress Vote Tracker database and on the Clerk's site.

The Case on Each Side

Published statements on this bill were located from the sponsor and from one member who voted against. Both are reproduced below in their own words, at the length each published: Rep. Steil's is a short press release, Rep. Moulton's a longer vote explainer. They are individual statements, not caucus positions.

The sponsor, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), described the bill as an ethics measure:

That characterisation is the sponsor's; readers can check it against the bill text, linked below.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who voted against, described the measure as:

Rep. Moulton's stated objections were that the bill leaves “a carve-out for Donald Trump and his family to keep profiting off of the presidency,” that it “does nothing to rein in the corruption that starts at the highest level of our government,” and that its election provisions “would functionally end vote-by-mail.” He named the Restore Trust in Government Act and the Restore Trust in Congress Act as alternatives he preferred, describing them as banning stock trading for members of Congress, the President, Vice President and Cabinet “with zero exceptions,” and said those bills had not been brought to the floor. He also wrote that H.R. 7008 “includes some of the most extreme provisions from the SAVE Act.”

Two measures share that name: H.R. 22, the SAVE Act, and H.R. 7296, the SAVE America Act, its second iteration. Whether the provisions in H.R. 7008 resemble those of either is a question of text; both are linked below. Rep. Moulton's characterisations of the election provisions and of the bill's treatment of the presidency can be checked against the H.R. 7008 text. Of the two alternatives he names, the Restore Trust in Congress Act is linked below; Congress Vote Tracker has not identified a bill number for the Restore Trust in Government Act and so has not linked it, a gap in this article's sourcing rather than a comment on the measure.

Both members' characterisations can be weighed against the bill text and the Rules Committee record, linked below. A search of members' official websites and press releases found no published explanation of why the voter identification requirements were included in the substitute, and no published explanation from any of the 13 Democrats who voted yes. No request for comment was made for this article.

What Happens Next

H.R. 7008 passed the House and now goes to the Senate, where it must be taken up before it can advance further. A bill that passes one chamber does not become law until the other chamber passes it in identical form and the President signs it.

Congress Vote Tracker records every roll call as it is certified. You can follow this bill's complete vote history, or see every recorded vote of the 119th Congress.