Will lawmakers ever stop breaking this law?

What do half-a-dozen members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Californians and Texans and Michiganders — all possibly have in common?

Here’s what: They’re the latest crop of federal lawmakers to violate an insider trader, conflict of interest and transparency law that Congress passed in 2012 to govern its own members’ behavior concerning the intersection of the personal finances and public service.

In exclusive stories for NOTUS, I reported that Reps. Shri Thanedar (D-Michigan), Tracey Mann (R-Kansas), Derek Tran (D-California), Julie Johnson (D-Texas) and Michael Rulli (R-Ohio) were each months late disclosing what together are dozens of personal stock and cryptocurrency trades, blowing past a 45-day deadline for publicly acknowledging their purchases and sales.

Politico also reported that a sixth lawmaker, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), also violated the STOCK Act by failing to properly report a stock exchange.

The timing of these STOCK Act violations is notable. That’s because the U.S. House last month passed a Republican-backed bill, supported by a few Democrats, too, known as the Stop Insider Trading Act.

The Stop Insider Trading Act’s passage in the House represents a significant step beyond any other legislative effort this decade to clamp down on federal lawmakers’ stock trading. That includes an aborted attempt to do so in 2022, when Democrats controlled the House, Senate and White House.

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Critics — primarily Democrats — say the Stop Insider Trading Act doesn’t go far enough. Many argue it should ban congressional stock ownership altogether and apply not only to Congress, but to the executive branch (read: President Donald Trump) and judiciary, as well.

But as written, the Stop Insider Trading Act would nevertheless go beyond the existing STOCK Act to prohibit federal lawmakers from buying new individual stocks. It would also strengthening penalties, which now begin with a $200 fine for botched disclosures.

Supporters say it would further help defend against insider trading (which is already illegal) and improve public trust by ending the practice of lawmakers who, say, sit on the House Armed Services Committee from newly investing in the stocks and corporate bonds of defense contractors.

As six STOCK Act violations in August should indicate, the current STOCK Act disclosure penalties provide little deterrence for federal lawmakers to comply with existing law.

Take Thanedar: His STOCK Act violation this month is no anomaly. From my article in NOTUS:

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Michigan) violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act by not disclosing a January sale of Apple stock, worth between $100,001 and $250,000, until Thursday. He likewise didn’t disclose an October sale of stock in MicroStrategy, one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin, until Thursday, as well …

… This is the third time Thanedar has violated the STOCK Act. Last year, after his second violation, he told NOTUS that he would voluntarily divest of his individual stock holdings. On Friday, he reiterated that he supports “actual efforts to ban congressional stock trading.

Wondering who else has violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions?

Lucky for you, we’re keeping a running list.

Beyond the six mentioned above:

Senators who’ve violated the STOCK Act during the past year include Sens. Alan Armstrong (R-Oklahoma), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).

In the House, STOCK Act violators include Reps. Linda Sánchez (D-California), Julia Letlow (R-Louisiana), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Lisa McClain (R-Michigan), Pat Ryan (D-New York), Sheri Biggs (R-South Carolina), Donald Norcross (D-New Jersey), Tim Walberg (R-Michigan), Rich McCormick (R-Georgia), Ritchie Torres (D-New York), Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania), Jonathan Jackson (D-Illinois), George Whitesides (D-California), Val Hoyle (D-Oregon), Austin Scott (R-Georgia), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), Kelly Morrison (D-Minnesota), Christian Menefee (D-Texas), Daniel Webster (R-Florida), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Laurel Lee (R-Florida) and Scott Franklin (R-Florida). Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) was also late, although his office denies it.

So what’s next for the Stop Insider Trading Act?

The bill is now before the Senate, which like the House, is in the midst of its August recess.

There doesn’t seem to be nearly the enthusiasm in the Senate as in the House for action on the bill.

After all, the Senate’s own version of a congressional stock-trade ban, known as the Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act, has languished for more than a year after passing out of committee in July 2025.

But voters across the political spectrum love the idea of a congressional stock-trade ban.

A 2023 poll by the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy indicated that overwhelming majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents alike support a law that would ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks. The president and vice president, too.

This means that Republicans — if they wish — could score themselves a popular legislative victory ahead of the 2026 midterms and claim they did something Democrats chose not to do when they had the chance four years back.