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Chairman Steil's full remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Stop Insider Trading Act.
There’s a lot of talk in this town about draining the swamp and cleaning up Washington.
Today, the rubber hits the road.
Good governance matters, and the Committee on House Administration is leading the way.
Under current law, Members of Congress are required to publicly disclose their stock trades.
But these disclosures lack details and are often filed months after a transaction.
This lack of transparency and the continued practice of Members purchasing stock is fueling public frustration.
It’s time we ban Members of Congress from being able to buy individual companies' shares of stock.
Doing so removes even the appearance of impropriety.
Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity to pass transformational Congressional ethics reform.
This is the first Congressional stock trading ban to receive a vote on the floor of the House.
Today, every American will know where their member stands.
If you want to day trade, there’s a place for that, it’s called Wall Street.
If you want to come to Washington, you should be working on behalf of the American people.
In addition, this bill also includes a commonsense proposal that we’ve advanced through the Committee on House Administration:
That’s voter ID.
Voter ID strengthens election integrity, is nonpartisan, and it's commonsense.
In this country, you have to show a photo ID to fly, open a bank account, buy beer, and more recently to enjoy never-ending pasta at Olive Garden.
But you don’t have to show an ID to vote in states like Minnesota, Illinois, California, and others.
We’re literally not doing the job of securing our elections when the easy task of photo ID is in front of us.
Mr. Speaker, it’s a simple concept: to vote in a federal election, you need to show a photo ID.
24 states already require a form of photo ID to vote.
This bill of course allows provisional voting if someone forgets their ID when they go to the polls.
Again, commonsense.
That’s why it’s so popular with the American people. They understand it. They know the need for this commonsense reform.
Photo ID will help strengthen election integrity, bolster voter confidence, and increase participation.
That’s a good thing for our democracy.
Mr. Speaker, these two proposals will clean up Washington and strengthen the integrity of our elections.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
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