By SUZANNE DOWNING
July 22, 2026 – Alaska Congressman Nick Begich helped advance legislation Wednesday that would prevent members of Congress and their immediate families from purchasing individual stocks while in office.
The House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act, H.R. 7008, on a 232-198 vote. Begich, a cosponsor of the bill, voted in favor. Thirteen Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure, making it the first congressional stock-trading restriction to receive a vote on the House floor.
Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is a cosponsor of the Senate companion, S. 4134, introduced by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska. That legislation remains before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The House bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from purchasing stock issued by publicly traded companies. Existing holdings could be retained, but lawmakers and family members would be required to file a public notice between seven and 14 days before selling covered investments.
Violations could result in a penalty of $2,000 or 10% of the value of the investment, whichever is greater, along with the surrender of any net gain realized from the sale.
Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the bill’s lead sponsor, said the prohibition is needed to remove both conflicts of interest and the appearance that lawmakers are using information unavailable to the public for personal gain.
“It’s time we ban members of Congress from being able to buy individual companies’ shares of stock,” Steil said ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “Doing so removes even the appearance of impropriety.”
The legislation attracted 93 House cosponsors, but only two Democrats signed on before the vote. Democratic opposition intensified because the legislation does not require lawmakers to divest themselves of stock they already own.
Democrats also objected after Republicans added a photo-identification requirement for federal elections. The provision was drawn from the SAVE America Act, a Trump-supported election-integrity measure that would require voters to show identification and provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, called the election provision a “poison pill.”
“Republicans have corrupted their so-called stock trading bill with a decaying piece of the SAVE America Act corpse,” Morelle said during the debate.
Republicans countered that both policies address public confidence in government: Members of Congress should not be able to use their positions to trade stocks, and voters should be required to prove their identities before casting federal ballots.
The Senate now has more than one congressional stock-trading proposal before it.
Sullivan-backed S. 4134 closely tracks the House legislation by prohibiting new individual-stock purchases while allowing lawmakers to retain existing investments. Introduced March 18, it has 14 Republican cosponsors but has not yet received a committee vote.
A stronger and more bipartisan alternative, Sen. Josh Hawley’s Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions Act, or HONEST Act, would prohibit members of Congress, the president, vice president, spouses and dependent children from holding, buying or selling individual stocks. It would require covered officials to dispose of current holdings after a transition period.
Hawley’s legislation advanced from committee in 2025, but Senate leaders have not scheduled it for a floor vote.
The House vote nevertheless represents the most significant movement Congress has made toward restricting its members’ stock-market activity since passage of the STOCK Act in 2012. That law prohibited lawmakers from using nonpublic information for personal financial benefit and required disclosure of certain transactions, but it did not prevent members from buying and selling individual stocks.
With Begich supporting the House bill and Sullivan cosponsoring its Senate companion, both members of Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation are now on record favoring new restrictions on stock purchases by federal lawmakers and their families.
