Americans need to know politicians are playing by the same rules, Kirsten Gillibrand said. Senate votes to move STOCK Act

In a rare bipartisan move, the Senate on Monday swiftly moved forward on a bill that cracks down on alleged congressional insider trading — legislation that was strongly endorsed by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or the STOCK Act, cleared a key procedural vote 93-2 on Monday evening.


The bill would help ensure lawmakers and congressional aides don’t profit from nonpublic information by applying insider trading laws already on the books to Capitol Hill.

“The American people need to know that their elected leaders play by the exact same rules that they play by,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told reporters Monday.

Two Republican senators voted no: Richard Burr of North Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

David Ward, a Burr spokesman, said the senator voted no because existing laws already addressed alleged insider trading among lawmakers and their staff. And Coburn said the bill would have severe unintended consequences and dramatically affect the membership of Congress.

“What happens the first time somebody doesn’t make that 30-day deadline? They violated the statute in law,” Coburn told reporters. “What are we doing? You’re not going to have anybody up here except the super, super-rich because nobody is going to say, ‘I can’t put all my money away and not trade.’ It’s nuts.”

In his State of the Union address, the president made clear he was eager to sign legislation banning congressional insider trading, and the administration underscored its backing further on Monday in a statement enthusiastically supporting the bill.

“No one should be able to trade stocks based on nonpublic information gleaned on Capitol Hill,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement after the vote. “So, we are pleased the Senate is one step closer to passing the STOCK Act.”

The STOCK Act withered in obscurity for years until a CBS “60 Minutes” investigation last fall exposed the practice. The number of co-sponsors subsequently exploded, particularly in the House, where a bill by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) that hung around for five years with little traction suddenly shot up to more than 250 co-sponsors, gaining support from Democrats and Republicans.

In the Senate, the legislation collected sponsors as ideologically diverse as socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and conservative Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

But even though the STOCK Act is broadly bipartisan, lawmakers took political hits at each other as they tried to drum up support for the legislation earlier Monday.

In a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon, Democratic senators accused House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) of blocking progress on the STOCK Act by intervening behind the scenes in December to halt a committee markup. Cantor had stopped the markup because Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who was overseeing the process, hadn’t cleared it with House Republican leaders first.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said Monday that Cantor’s move was “regrettable.” And Gillibrand said House Republican leaders’ delay in moving the bipartisan bill “shows their inability to lead on an issue that people have an agreement on.”

In December, Cantor said he wanted a broader version of the STOCK Act that would cover other transactions, such as land sales, from which lawmakers could also unfairly profit. A spokeswoman for Cantor said Monday that he would move the expanded version through the House in February.

“While the current Senate bill is a step in the right direction, there are other areas where it can be strengthened such as applying disclosure requirements to the Executive Branch and their employees in a position to gain from insider information,” Cantor said in a statement after the Senate vote. “We will closely monitor the Senate’s progress as the measure is strengthened during the amendment process, and will ensure action on legislation that meets the underlying goals of the STOCK Act in the most timely manner possible.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused Senate Republicans of holding up progress on the STOCK Act.

“I’m really disappointed that I had to file cloture to stop a Republican filibuster on this worthy legislation, but I did,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “They’re not going to let us move to this. We had to file cloture to stop this filibuster.”

A Reid spokesman said at least one senator indicated objection to the STOCK Act, forcing the Nevada Democrat to take the extra procedural move. But a senior Republican aide disputed that and said “nobody has any clue” why Reid filed cloture on the bill.

The Senate’s STOCK Act also would toughen disclosure requirements by calling on lawmakers and congressional employees to report major financial transactions every 30 days. Currently, it’s only required once a year. Additionally, the bill would require disclosure forms to be posted online on lawmakers’ websites.

The bill also would punish lawmakers who tip off family members on insider information and ensure that engaging in insider trading would also constitute a violation of Congress’s own rules.

Manu Raju contributed to this report.