Schumer tanks popular insider trading ban in Dem effort to derail Republican's agenda ahead of midterms

Senate Democrats blocked a Republican attempt to pass a bill that bundled a ban on lawmakers trading stocks using inside knowledge with a nationwide voter ID requirement. The measure, the Stop Insider Trading Act, failed as both parties head toward November midterms in which each side needs to win. Fox News reports that voters strongly favor both ideas, yet neither has advanced in Congress, according to Fox News · Daily Caller.

The House approved the legislation earlier this month, although most Democrats there voted against it. Democrats in both chambers argued the stock-trading limits were too weak and the voter ID language too aggressive. That language echoes the SAVE America Act, which Senate Democrats have stopped several times in various versions this year. The trading ban, for its part, has mostly stalled because of internal disputes within both parties.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Republicans knew the pairing would sink the bill and designed it that way on purpose. He asserted they do not want it to become law, calling the maneuver "trickery" and "Skullduggery." Schumer said that if GOP senators truly cared about ending stock trading by members, they would not have attached a voter ID provision Democrats had already defeated twice. The outcome fits a developing pattern in which Democrats appear unwilling to hand Republicans two major victories just before an election that matters greatly to both parties.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News · Daily Caller’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News · Daily Caller →