The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Stop Insider Trading Act in a 232-198 vote, sending a proposed congressional stock-trading ban to the Senate despite criticism that the measure would allow lawmakers to keep and sell stocks they already own.

According to a statement from Representative Bryan Steil’s office, the House approved the legislation on Wednesday, July 22. Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, introduced the bill in January and called on senators to send it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying securities issued by publicly traded companies. The restriction would apply to new purchases, while lawmakers and covered family members would be allowed to retain securities already held in their portfolios.

Existing shares could still be sold if the owner files a public notice before the transaction. The bill requires notice at least seven days and no more than 14 days before a planned sale, with filings submitted to the clerk of the House or the secretary of the Senate.

Steil has described the proposal as an effort to prevent lawmakers from using information obtained through public office for personal gain. After the House vote, he said the bill was “a major step forward for ethics reform on Capitol Hill.”

The measure would impose both a financial penalty and the forfeiture of trading gains. Congressional ethics committees would levy either $2,000 or 10% of the covered investment’s value, whichever is higher. Violators would also be required to surrender any profit earned from a prohibited transaction.

During debate in the House, Steil said lawmakers had not previously been given a comparable opportunity to vote on the issue. The bill received bipartisan support, although the 232 votes in favor represented a narrow share of the chamber. The Senate response will determine whether Congress advances a narrower ban focused on future purchases or reworks the measure toward a broader ownership restriction.

Senate opposition threatens the bill

After the House sent the legislation to the Senate on Thursday, the measure faced immediate resistance from Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who has supported stricter limits on congressional trading. Warren objected to the House version because it would allow officials to keep and sell individual stocks they already own.

“The bill has major loopholes,” Warren wrote on Thursday, adding that the current version was “not gonna fly in the Senate.” She argued that members of Congress should be prohibited from owning, buying or selling individual stocks, rather than being restricted mainly from making new purchases.

I've long fought to ban congressional stock trading, but the House Republican-passed bill has MAJOR LOOPHOLES.Lawmakers can continue owning and selling stocks – so it won't solve the problem. Not gonna fly in the Senate.Members of Congress should not own, buy, or sell stocks. — Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) 2026-07-23T17:15:30.753Z

Steil has defended the advance-notice requirement as a deterrent against transactions based on confidential information. Under the bill, a planned sale would become public before execution, allowing lawmakers to face scrutiny over the transaction and any government action tied to the company involved.

Warren’s criticism reflects a core difference between the two approaches. Her preferred restriction would remove lawmakers from individual stock ownership, while the House bill would allow existing portfolios to remain in place and regulate how those holdings are sold. That difference is central to the bill’s path forward because the House text addresses new buying and noticed sales, while critics argue that continued ownership leaves unresolved conflicts when lawmakers oversee policy affecting companies in their portfolios.

The proposal also applies to fewer federal officials than ethics language being considered under the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act. Steil’s stock-trading bill covers members of Congress and the immediate family members specified in the legislation, but it does not apply to the president, vice president or their families.

A revised 616-page CLARITY Act draft takes a different approach to crypto-related conflicts. According to proposed text reported this week, covered federal officials, including the president, vice president, lawmakers and federal judges, would be barred from issuing or sponsoring digital assets through Jan. 20, 2029.

Crypto intermediaries would also be prohibited from listing assets issued or sponsored in violation of those provisions. Unlike the permanent trading rules proposed by Steil, the CLARITY Act ethics restrictions would expire on the specified 2029 date.

Prediction-market proposal targets similar conflicts

Steil has also proposed a separate measure covering wagers made through prediction platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. The House Administration Committee chairman introduced the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act on June 18, citing the risk that officials could profit from information not available to the public.

According to the House Administration Committee, the legislation would prevent members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from wagering on political outcomes or public-policy questions. Steil said lawmakers should write policy rather than place bets on its outcome.

The penalty structure closely mirrors the House-approved stock bill. A violation would carry a charge equal to $2,000 or 10% of the prohibited wager’s value, whichever is higher, along with forfeiture of the net gain from the contract.

Public scrutiny of prediction markets has grown following reports of users profiting from political information. One reported case involved a soldier who allegedly earned more than $400,000 from contracts linked to the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces in January.

A former Trump teleprompter operator was separately reported to have made more than $90,000 from Kalshi contracts tied to words and phrases used during the president’s speeches. Arizona officials later cited the reported activity while tightening rules against government employees using nonpublic information on prediction platforms.

Steil’s two proposals apply the same principle to different financial products: congressional officials should not be able to convert privileged knowledge into personal returns. Their legislative paths now differ, with the stock-trading bill awaiting Senate action while the prediction-market measure remains at an earlier stage of the process.