Senate Democrats Block Measures Pushed By Florida Sen. Moody On Stock Trading And Utility Rates
Senate Democrats halted two House-passed bills on the Senate floor this week, blocking measures that aimed to restrict congressional stock trading, add a national voter identification rule, and shield utility customers from data center infrastructure expenses.
The two proposals, the Stop Insider Trading Act and the Ratepayer Protection Act, had previously cleared the House of Representatives before coming up for consideration in the Senate.
Senator Ashley Moody had sought unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act, which she cosponsored. Under that proposal, members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children would generally be barred from buying individual stocks and would be required to give public notice prior to selling shares. The measure also included a provision establishing nationwide voter identification requirements.
Moody criticized the decision by Senate Democrats to stop the legislation from moving forward.
Florida Senator Ashley Moody
“This is exactly why Americans are frustrated with Washington. Democrats had the opportunity to join us in restoring some faith in our government by banning members of Congress from trading stocks and protecting families from paying the costs for massive data centers, and they said NO,” Moody said. “Instead of working to benefit the American people, Democrats chose to play politics to solicit praise from the most radical element of their base.”
The second blocked bill, the Ratepayer Protection Act, cleared the House by a 417-3 margin with Moody serving as a Senate cosponsor. The legislation directs state utility regulators and unregulated utilities to weigh new standards for large electricity users. Those standards would require large-load customers to cover the full, incremental costs of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades needed to supply power to projects such as commercial data centers, rather than shifting those costs onto residential households.
Earlier in the legislative session, Moody had introduced the bipartisan Restore Trust in Congress Act, another proposal centered on congressional stock restrictions.
Both subjects have drawn high levels of public backing in independent polling. A University of Maryland study found that 86% of Americans favor barring members of Congress from trading individual stocks, a figure that includes 88% of Democrats and 81% of Independents. On voter identification, Pew Research Center data shows 83% of American adults support requiring photo identification to vote, including 76% of Black Americans and 82% of Hispanic Americans.
With unanimous consent blocked, neither bill currently has a set schedule for formal floor debate or a roll-call vote in the Senate.