Senate blocks GOP stock-trading and data center bills in final votes before the midterms
Two House-passed Republican bills — one limiting lawmakers’ stock purchases, one on data centers’ power costs — fell short of 60 votes Wednesday as senators left Washington to campaign.
What we know: Senate Democrats blocked two Republican-backed bills on Wednesday in procedural votes that needed 60 votes to advance, CBS News and the Associated Press reported. Neither bill passed; both remain stalled. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) scheduled the votes as senators prepared to leave town, and Congress is expected to be out of session for all of October as members campaign ahead of the November midterm elections, according to AP.
Stock trading, 53-47: The Stop Insider Trading Act failed on a party-line 53-47 vote, CBS News reported. The House passed it in July with all Republicans and 13 Democrats. It would bar members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying publicly traded stocks, and require lawmakers to publicly disclose each planned sale at least a week in advance. The bill also carries a separate requirement that voters show photo identification in federal elections — a provision Democrats called a poison pill that they argue would gut mail voting.
“The Republican toothless stock-trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor, arguing for an outright ban that would also cover the president and administration officials. Thune called it a “common-sense piece of legislation.”
Data centers, 57-43: A bill aimed at voters’ worries that data centers are pushing up electricity bills fell short 57-43, AP reported, despite passing the House 417-3. It would require utility regulators to consider adopting a federal standard that charges large power customers a rate covering the grid upgrades needed to serve them. Democrats say that amounts to a suggestion; Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) has a competing bill directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to write mandatory rules. “They want it optional, which means zero. We want it mandatory,” Schumer said.
The sponsor, Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), faces a tough reelection race against former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has labeled him the “face of data centers,” AP reported. “This bill passing is the only way to get a chance to prove to the American people before the midterm elections whose side you’re on,” Husted told reporters.
Why the votes happened now: Both votes were expected to fail and were meant to put Democrats on the record as several Senate races tighten, CBS News reported. About 6 in 10 Americans support limiting the number of new data centers, according to AP.
What this means: In the Senate, most bills need 60 votes to clear a procedural hurdle before a final vote, so a simple majority was not enough. Wednesday’s results mean no new congressional stock-trading limits and no federal data center power-cost standard before Election Day — both issues now move to the campaign trail.