‘This Bill Is a Trojan Horse’: GOP Pushes Voter Suppression Under Cover of Insider Trading Ban
“Republicans are trying to pull a trick this week,” said US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on March 4, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Jul 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Democrats on Capitol Hill and voting rights advocates on Tuesday sounded the alarm about Republicans in the House of Representatives trying to push through voter suppression legislation under cover of passing a ban on congressional stock trading.
According to a Tuesday report from Roll Call, House GOP leaders recently added “unrelated language” to what was a bipartisan bill banning congressional stock trading that would “require voters to produce photo ID at the polls, a signature issue for President Donald Trump.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hammered Republicans for what she said were underhanded tactics that are undermining what had been a serious bipartisan effort to halt congressional stock trading.
“Republicans are trying to pull a trick this week,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a social media post. “They say we are voting on an ‘insider trading’ bill, but have snuck in massive SAVE Act-style voter suppression measures to it. This is a GOP effort to sabotage national mail-in voting, disguised as a trading ban. I’m voting NO.”
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that the caucus was opposing the GOP’s legislation not just for its attacks on voting rights, but because it only forces congresspeople to stop making new stock trades, while not requiring them to divest of their current holdings.
“House Republicans are not serious about enacting a meaningful congressional stock trading ban,” said Clarke. “The combined Stop Insider Trading Act and Voter ID Act... would allow members of Congress to continue owning, selling, and, in some cases, purchasing individual stocks while simultaneously imposing stricter voter ID requirements that would make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote.”
“This bill is a Trojan horse,” Clarke added, “using the premise of congressional ethics reform to advance a broader effort to restrict access to the ballot box.”
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) on Monday sent lawmakers a letter opposing the GOP-backed legislation, which it said would “impose onerous new requirements on voting.”
Among other things, the group said the proposed legislation would “demand Americans provide ID to cast a ballot but only accept an unreasonably narrow list of acceptable types of documentation,” excluding the kind of “widely held and reliable forms of ID that young people and voters of color disproportionally rely on.”
The CLC also said the bill doesn’t provide “sufficient safeguards” for voters wrongly deemed ineligible to prove they are legally allowed to participate in US elections.
A page on congressional contact portal 5 Calls recommended users oppose the GOP-backed bill, which it described as “partisan legislation” that “uses the guise of much-needed ethics reform to sneak through an unpopular and unrelated attack on voting rights.”
AOC issues dire warning about planned GOP 'trick' to pass voting restrictions
Matthew Chapman
July 21, 2026
Matthew Chapman
July 21, 2026
RAW STORY
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Shutterstock)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to X on Tuesday to warn that Republicans have a stealth plan to try to implement President Donald Trump's desired national restrictions on voting rights.
The issue concerns a bill being introduced by Republicans to prohibit insider trading on stocks by members of Congress — which, according to Ocasio-Cortez, would also include provisions of the voting-restriction bill known as the SAVE America Act.
"Republicans are trying to pull a trick this week," wrote Ocasio-Cortez. "They say we are voting on an 'insider trading' bill, but have snuck in massive SAVE Act-style voter suppression measures to it. This is a GOP effort to sabotage national mail-in voting, disguised as a trading ban."
She vowed to oppose the plan.
"If GOP were at all serious about the insider trading issue, they would put it up on its own for a vote," she continued. "They know adding voter suppression to it will sabotage the effort to ban insider trading. That’s exactly why they’re doing it this way. Don’t fall for it. Spread the word."
The issue of banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks has gained prominence in recent years, after a series of cases of members charged with insider trading. Congress passed legislation in 2012 to require members to publicly disclose their stock trades as a means of keeping things transparent; however, in practice, many lawmakers in both parties simply ignore the rules.
Republicans put forward legislation earlier this year purporting to crack down on stock trades, but Ocasio-Cortez noted at the time the bill would not only allow for many kinds of trades to continue, it would actually make some kinds of trades less transparent.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Shutterstock)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to X on Tuesday to warn that Republicans have a stealth plan to try to implement President Donald Trump's desired national restrictions on voting rights.
The issue concerns a bill being introduced by Republicans to prohibit insider trading on stocks by members of Congress — which, according to Ocasio-Cortez, would also include provisions of the voting-restriction bill known as the SAVE America Act.
"Republicans are trying to pull a trick this week," wrote Ocasio-Cortez. "They say we are voting on an 'insider trading' bill, but have snuck in massive SAVE Act-style voter suppression measures to it. This is a GOP effort to sabotage national mail-in voting, disguised as a trading ban."
She vowed to oppose the plan.
"If GOP were at all serious about the insider trading issue, they would put it up on its own for a vote," she continued. "They know adding voter suppression to it will sabotage the effort to ban insider trading. That’s exactly why they’re doing it this way. Don’t fall for it. Spread the word."
The issue of banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks has gained prominence in recent years, after a series of cases of members charged with insider trading. Congress passed legislation in 2012 to require members to publicly disclose their stock trades as a means of keeping things transparent; however, in practice, many lawmakers in both parties simply ignore the rules.
Republicans put forward legislation earlier this year purporting to crack down on stock trades, but Ocasio-Cortez noted at the time the bill would not only allow for many kinds of trades to continue, it would actually make some kinds of trades less transparent.
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