Can members of Congress trade stocks? What the STOCK Act requires, and what it does not

What the law in force says

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, known as the STOCK Act, is Public Law 112-105. Its main provisions on trading are these:

• Section 3 directs the House and Senate ethics committees to issue guidance that a Member or employee of Congress may not use nonpublic information derived from the position as a means for making a private profit.
• Section 4 affirms that Members and employees of Congress are not exempt from the insider trading prohibitions in the securities laws, including section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, and states that each owes a duty of trust and confidence to the Congress, the Government and the citizens with respect to material nonpublic information from the position.
• Section 6 adds a reporting rule. Not later than 30 days after receiving notification of a reportable transaction, and in no case later than 45 days after it, the covered person files a report of the transaction.
• Section 8 requires the financial disclosure forms to be posted publicly online by the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate.
• Section 12 bars covered individuals from buying shares in an initial public offering other than in a manner available to the public generally.

The text we read contains no prohibition on owning individual stocks or on trading them. It sets conduct rules, a disclosure duty and a requirement that the reports be public.

What has to be reported

The House Ethics Committee's periodic transaction report form says a Member must report the purchase, sale or exchange of stocks, bonds, commodities, futures and other securities owned by the Member, a spouse or a dependent child when the amount exceeds $1,000. The same form lists what need not be on a periodic report: real property, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, the Thrift Savings Plan, and some other items, though they may appear on the annual disclosure. A $200 penalty is assessed on anyone who files more than 30 days late, and deadlines are not extended for weekends or holidays.

How to read a filed report is covered in how to read a congressional periodic transaction report, and why disclosures arrive weeks after the trade is in this explainer.

A 2026 bill, and what we could confirm

H.R. 7008, the Stop Insider Trading Act, would add a subchapter to title 5 of the US Code. The version published by GovInfo provides that no covered individual (a Member of Congress, a spouse or a dependent child) may purchase a covered investment, defined as a security issued by a publicly traded company or a comparable interest through a derivative, with exclusions such as diversified funds and some trusts. It requires a notice of intent to sell, made public at least 7 and no more than 14 calendar days before a sale, and sets a fee of $2,000 or ten percent of the transaction, whichever is greater, plus any net gain. It takes effect 180 days after enactment.

The same document records that it was received in the Senate on 23 July 2026, read the first time on 5 August and the second time on 6 August, and placed on the calendar as Calendar No. 548. It also contains a separate section on photo identification for voters, which has nothing to do with securities. A news report published on 1 October 2026 says a Senate vote on 30 September received 53 votes in favor and 47 against, short of the 60 needed to proceed.

We read the bill text from GovInfo. We could not open the bill's Congress.gov page, which refused automated requests, and we did not open a Senate roll-call record, so the news report is the only source for the vote. Check the bill's current status on Congress.gov before relying on this section. It describes a bill, not a law.

What the STOCK Act does not do

The disclosure rules do not say why a member traded, and a report is not an allegation. The reports contain ranges rather than exact amounts, they arrive after the trade, and they omit what the form excludes. OQRO keeps official ranges as ranges and does not infer motive. See the STOCK Act guide and the methodology.