Johnny Olszewski, Jr. · TranslatePolitics.com

House of Representatives

Providing for Consideration of H.R. 8800, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 8884, Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act...

2026-07-21

“I don't like this bill. It doesn't do enough. It should ban stock trading completely. But I would still vote for it if it only did a little bit. I don't like the other parts of the bill. They make it harder to vote. The other side wants to make it hard to vote. They don't even help people get IDs. This bill tricks people. The other side doesn't want to fix things. They don't want to stop corruption. They won't make things cost less. People should vote no on this bill.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule. I agree, it is past time that we ban congressional insider trading. No one should benefit from public service, but wouldn't the easiest way to do that be to just completely ban stock trading entirely, not take the baby steps attached to this bill included in the rule? Still, I was open to voting for the bill, to accept that incremental but wholly insufficient progress. What I am not open to, Mr. Speaker, is accepting modest progress on stock ethics, insufficient progress in exchange for significantly compromising American voting rights, and that is also exactly what this bill would do. It would add unnecessary and unrelated provisions that make it harder for Americans to vote. Republicans can't even be bothered to provide the IDs they would have Americans be required to have in order to vote. In fact, that was in the bill, and they took it out. That is not reform, Mr. Speaker. That is a bait-and-switch. It is one more ruse by this Republican majority to distract the public from their inability or their unwillingness, or both, to rein in costs and address corruption. The American people deserve so much better. I urge a ``no'' vote.

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