Did House Democrats vote against banning congressional stock trading?

In July 2026, a rumor spread that 198 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives had voted against a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. 

Several online posts amplified the rumor, including on Facebook and X. One X user shared a screenshot of the roll call, displaying the numbers of “yeas” and “nays,” which showed that 13 Democrats had voted to pass the bill and 198 had voted against (archived):

The White House “Rapid Response” account also relayed the claim (archived), saying the Democrats in question were “corrupt.”

While it is true that 198 Democratic representatives voted against a bill that would ban stock trading by members of Congress, some of those who took part in the debate criticized it for excluding the U.S. president from this ban and allowing several loopholes that they argued would render the measure ineffective. 

Additionally, some criticized a section in the bill that would require voters to present identity documents as a condition for casting their ballots.

In other words, the Democrats in question did not vote against the bill specifically to block a ban on insider trading in Congress. They voted because they said the bill did not go far enough or in opposition to a measure that, some said, would place an undue burden on U.S. voters by forcing them to present a photo ID at the polls — or for both reasons.

For this reason, we have rated the claim a mixture of truth and falsehood.

The debate

On July 22, 2026, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7008, a bill named the “Stop Insider Trading Act.” The bill passed 232-198, with 198 Democrats voting against it. Thirteen Democrats voted for the bill, along with 218 Republicans and one independent.

Allowing lawmakers to trade stocks has long been controversial, given that some may have access to privileged information that can affect the stock price of publicly traded companies, exposing them to suspicion of insider trading.

Ostensibly, the bill would place restrictions on trading stocks for members of Congress. 

However, critics said that the bill was mostly ineffective in preventing insider trading. For example, the independent watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said on X that the legislation would fail to stop members of Congress from owning or profiting from stock trades (archived): 

Some Democratic representatives who voted against the bill echoed these concerns, such as Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who called the bill a “sham”:  “Today, I voted No on the Stop Insider Trading Act. Republicans call this a stock trading ban, but it’s really a sham piece of legislation full of loopholes for politicians and the President to take advantage of.”

Minnesota’s Betty McCollum agreed, saying that the bill did nothing to prevent the U.S. president from enriching himself while in office. In a statement on her website, she said: “Let me be clear, this bill is not a stock trading ban. It does nothing to stop Members of Congress from profiting off their positions, and it says nothing about the President’s own outrageous self-enrichment while in office.” 

Instead, McCollum said, the bill “will pile new burdens on voters and election officials, override even the strictest state voter ID laws by tossing out documents like student IDs and hunting licenses, and effectively ends voting by mail.”

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey cited the same concerns in a statement on her website. 

During the debate (which starts at 3:12:30 in this video), several Democrats also criticized Section 3 of the bill, which outlined a “requirement to provide photo identification as condition of casting ballot.“

Rep. Joe Morelle, from New York, spoke first (at 3:15:37): 

The bill we’re considering today would force voters in America to surrender photocopies of their photo IDs in their mail ballot envelopes. This isn’t just a voter ID bill. It’s a bill to destroy vote by mail, something the president [Donald Trump] routinely rails against. 

Later, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, who said the bill did not go far enough to prevent insider trading in Congress, said the legislation was designed to promote voter suppression (at 3:36:24):

If Republicans really wanted to ban member stock trading, 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. And additionally, congressional ethics cannot become a Trojan horse for voter suppression. 

After the bill passed the House of Representatives, it moved to the Senate and still awaited a vote, as of this writing.

For further reading, Snopes has covered Republican efforts to tighten voting restrictions, including the SAVE America Act.