House passes bill to restrict congressional stock trading with Bresnahan’s support

The House of Representatives passed Wednesday legislation to restrict stock trading by members of Congress, with Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan supporting the GOP-backed bill that would also impose voter ID requirements.

The “Stop Insider Trading Act” legislation, H.R. 7008, does not amount to a complete ban on congressional stock trading, but would generally prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from purchasing individual stocks while in office. It would not bar members from holding or selling their existing stocks, but would require them to publicly disclose in advance their intent to sell stocks or other “covered investments.”

The bill cleared the lower chamber by a vote of 232-198, with 13 Democrats joining Bresnahan and all of his fellow House Republicans in voting for it.

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“Members of Congress should never be allowed to trade their own stocks and profit off the information they are entrusted with; this is a belief I have held since before taking office, and this belief has not changed,” Bresnahan said in a press release. “By putting reasonable restrictions on the buying and selling of stocks and increasing penalties for violations means greater levels of transparency and a renewed commitment to serving the American people and them alone.”

Should the bill become law, members of Congress who violate it would be “assessed a fine equal to $2,000 or 10% of the value of the transaction, whichever is greater, and any net gain realized from a transaction,” per Bresnahan’s press release. He was a co-sponsor of the legislation.

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