How the Stop Insider Trading Act Fails to Solve the Congressional Stock Trading Problem

The Stop Insider Trading Act (H.R. 7008) will not restore voters’ confidence that members of Congress are prioritizing the public good over their own pocketbooks. While this legislation purportedly seeks to reduce concerns about lawmakers’ trading on non-public information, it fails to address the two inherent problems with congressional stock ownership: the appearance of insider trading and members’ ability to profit from their official position. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has prepared a factsheet that summarizes these issues and describes how the Stop Insider Trading Act fails to actually ban congressional stock trading. Congress should reject this legislation and focus instead on real solutions that prohibit not only the buying and selling of individual stocks, but also the ownership of such assets.