Stop Insider Trading Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for his leadership and partnership.

Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are pushing a voter suppression bill that would severely restrict the mail ballots that seniors, rural Americans, and so many others rely on, and would throw our elections into chaos late in the cycle while people are already casting their ballots.

They are doing this at the behest of Donald Trump, who continues to obsess over his 2020 election loss and promote election conspiracy theories.

They are trying to trick us into supporting their voter suppression bill by calling it the Stop Insider Trading Act and including watered down language that would still allow Members of Congress to own stocks and to trade stocks with only some new restrictions.

Make no mistake, this is a trap. This bill is to make it harder for eligible Americans to vote. The Republican leadership is trying to trick us into supporting it by calling it a congressional stock trading ban, even though it doesn't actually fully ban congressional stock trading.

This bill also does nothing to stop the biggest stock trader in Washington, President Trump, who has made millions of dollars trading stocks for the companies that he regulates--tech companies, healthcare companies, defense companies, and more.

The American people are sick of corruption. The American people are sick of politicians getting rich off of inside information while working people struggle. The American people want a real stock trading ban for politicians in Washington.

Last year, I worked with reformers on both sides of the aisle, including Mr. Roy, whose partnership I very much appreciated. Republicans and Democrats wrote a strong bill that will actually ban congressional stock trading with no loopholes and no gimmicks. That is what the American people want.

Mr. Speaker, for this reason and at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee.

If the House rules permitted it, I would have offered that motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would replace this Republican voter suppression bill with the Restore Trust in Government Act, our bill to fully ban stock trading in Congress and the Oval Office. Mr. Speaker, 190 Members have signed on to support this bill, and it is time to bring it to the floor.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting it.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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