"Congress should not be a retirement home." We said that on episode 007, along with a lot of complaints about lawmakers trading stocks while writing the rules. Here is what has happened since, because it is more than we knew when we recorded.
The law today. Under the STOCK Act of 2012, members of Congress must disclose their stock trades. They are not banned from trading individual stocks.
What the House passed. On July 22, 2026, the House passed a bill 232 to 198. It would bar members, their spouses and dependent children from buying new shares of individual publicly traded companies while in office. They could keep stocks they already owned, or sell them with public notice 7 to 14 days ahead, and widely held investment funds are exempt. Penalties are the greater of $2,000 or 10 percent of the trade's value, plus the gain. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), who chairs the House Administration Committee, led the bill. The vote was mostly along party lines; Roll Call counts 13 Democrats in favor. Many Democrats said it did not go far enough and wanted a full ban, and Republicans added photo-ID-to-vote language that Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) called a "poison pill."
What the Senate did. On September 30, 2026, the Senate voted 53 to 47 on a motion to advance its version, the Stop Insider Trading Act, sponsored by Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Jon Husted (R-OH). That is seven votes short of the 60 needed to move forward, so it failed. All Senate Democrats voted no, using the 60-vote filibuster threshold. The Senate bill carried the photo-ID-to-vote language borrowed from the SAVE America Act. Democrats called it a "poison pill" and also said the trading limits were too weak; Sen. Chuck Schumer called the bill "as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine," while Sen. John Thune said Democrats "can't take yes for an answer." The vote came right before the Senate broke until after Election Day and was seen partly as a messaging exercise.
Where that leaves us. Right now nothing has changed: lawmakers can still trade individual stocks and disclose afterward. One report (24/7 Wall St.) expects a ban to pass eventually since both chambers have shown support for the idea, though no follow-up plan had been announced. The thing to watch is whether a Senate version without the voter ID piece gets a vote and reaches 60. As of November 1, we found no newer vote.
What the sources say
Episode 007, about 18:18 to 19:31. Nick said "Congress should not be a retirement home" (18:24), and that trading "needs to be eliminated." That is our opinion, and the House bill is narrower: it bars buying new individual stocks but lets members keep what they own.
At 19:06 Nick said a law "won't happen because you need two thirds." An ordinary bill needs a majority in each chamber, and the Senate needs 60 votes to end debate. Two-thirds is for constitutional amendments. It turned out the House passed the bill 232 to 198 and the Senate got 53 votes, short of 60.
At 19:06 Nick predicted members would hide trades "through a family or through a shell." That is a prediction. The House bill covers spouses and dependent children, and whether it can be dodged is untested.
Term limits for Congress would take a constitutional amendment, which needs two-thirds of both chambers and three-fourths of the states. That is a much higher bar than the stock bill.
Our take (opinion). If you write the rules that move markets, you should not be able to profit from them. That is a position people across the political spectrum share, which is why it keeps coming back. People disagree about the right fix: a full ban, a limited ban, or blind trusts. We would rather see the ban pass on its own, without being tied to a separate fight.
Sources:
- Colorado Politics, Sept 30, 2026: Senate Democrats block congressional stock trading ban
- 24/7 Wall St., Oct 1, 2026: The Senate just voted down a ban on congressional stock trading
- Roll Call, July 22, 2026: Congressional stock trading bill passes the House
- NBC Palm Springs, July 22, 2026: House passes bill to restrict congressional stock trading
- Rep. Steil's press release on the House passage
