GOP voter ID bill falls short in Senate

With the midterm elections just over a month away, Senate Republicans tried to score a few final political points before leaving Washington, forcing a vote on a congressional stock-trading ban that included an unrelated voter ID requirement.

The Stop Insider Trading Act would prevent members of Congress and their families from buying individual stocks — a proposal popular with Democrats and voters in general. But Republicans attached a provision requiring voters to provide photo identification to cast ballots — including mail ballots. 

The bill failed to clear the 60-vote threshold to end debate in the Senate, 53-47. Every Democratic and independent senator voted against the measure.

It was the GOP’s latest attempt to force through anti-voting measures backed by President Donald Trump. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass the SAVE America Act, a larger and more contentious package of anti-voting measures he has pushed since returning to office last year. 

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the vote a stunt and accused the GOP of including the voter ID provision just to ensure the stock trading bill wouldn’t pass. 

“If Republicans cared about stock trading by members, they wouldn’t have loaded it up with a poison pill — a voter ID bill that would gut mail voting and that has failed six times,” Schumer said Tuesday afternoon. “Republicans know no one in their right mind would go along with this draconian voting restriction, so they attached it to the bill [to kill it.]”

The latest vote came just as the Senate packs up for the campaign trail, as part of a couple of political messaging bills the chamber considered Wednesday. The House already left earlier this month — a week ahead of schedule. Recent polls show Republicans facing long odds of retaining control of both chambers as Trump’s approval rating hits record lows. 

The floor stunt attempted to give Republicans facing tough reelection fights something to campaign on as voters sour on the GOP’s willingness to acquiesce to Trump on artificial intelligence, the war with Iran, tariffs and election denialism.

The House passed a version of the stock trading and voter ID legislation in July, with 13 Democrats joining Republicans in support. Announcing the scheduled floor vote Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) described the measure as “a photo ID law coupled with a ban on insider trading.” 

During the unveiling of a new government AI website on Tuesday, Trump veered from his remarks to again call for passage of the SAVE America Act.

While the House has passed versions of that bill, Senate Republicans were never able to muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. 

Democrats have also attacked the new bill’s stock trading limitations as riddled with loopholes — it lets lawmakers keep individual stocks they already own, allowing them to vote in those companies’ favor — and insufficiently comprehensive. Instead, they favor proposals that would extend the ban to the president and vice president.