Stop Insider Trading Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, two things can be true at the same time. I can support voter ID requirements, which I do, and I can support banning Members of Congress from trading stocks, which I do, and I am in compliance.

I can also oppose this bill because it is not an honest attempt to do either.

This bill's stock-trading provisions do not go nearly far enough. In this bill, Members can retain their investments that they already own, preserving the very conflicts of interest that a real ban would eliminate.

Instead, also in this bill, Republicans are attaching new barriers for Americans to vote by mail, requiring photocopies of a very narrow set of acceptable IDs, more narrow than those required in the State of Texas. They are so narrow that a very similar bill was vetoed by a Republican Governor in the State of Ohio. They put more burdens upon voters without access to copiers and more strain on election officials.

If Republicans really wanted to ban Member stock trading, then bring us a really clean bill, and I will vote for it. In fact, I offered amendments to this bill, and Republicans rejected them all.

Additionally, congressional ethics cannot become a Trojan horse for voter suppression.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this bill.

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