{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-leads-final-pre-midterm-effort-to-defeat-anti-voter-save-act-condemns-trump-corruption/", "Padilla Leads Final Pre-Midterm Effort to Defeat Anti-Voter SAVE Act, Condemns Trump Corruption", "2026-09-30", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, took to the Senate floor in opposition to Republicans\u2019 so-called Stop Insider Trading Act, which would allow members of Congress who already own stocks to keep trading and does nothing to prevent the President and Vice President from trading stocks, and includes a voter identification provision from the SAVE Act that would require eligible voters to include photo identification in their mail and absentee ballots, among other provisions. If enacted, this requirement would have been stricter than all 50 states. Once again, Padilla led his Senate colleagues in defeating this anti-voter provision and underscored the importance of holding President Trump accountable for his ongoing corruption, this time, just over a month before Election Day.\n\nThe Senate failed to advance the bill by a party-line vote of 53-47, with 60 votes required to pass the bill.\n\n\u201cHere we are, 34 days before Election Day, or, as I like to suggest, 34 days before the final day to vote because we\u2019re encouraging people to cast their ballot early if they can, or vote by mail if and where they can,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cBut instead of talking about the issues that are most on the minds of American families, Republicans are here again trying to distract from those issues and to, frankly, create confusion amongst voters in order to protect the President and the party from your failed policies.\u201d\n\nWhile Republicans claim to express concern over insider stock trading, Padilla exposed Trump\u2019s own corruption and highlighted his previous efforts to prevent it, including the fact that President Trump traded more than 21,000 times in his first year in office, more than every member of Congress combined, increasing his net worth by $4-5 billion. Padilla also called out Trump\u2019s Truth Social service, which sells early inside access to presidential announcements to hedge funds and Wall Street firms. He further detailed the impacts of attaching the voter ID provision to the bill and emphasized MAGA Republicans\u2019 efforts to provoke election chaos.\n\n\u201cThe American people deserve to have confidence that their elected representatives are making decisions in the best interest of the American people, and not in your bank account or in your stock investments. But that\u2019s not what this bill will do,\u201d continued Senator Padilla. \u201cThis bill does not ban members of Congress from holding stocks or trading stocks, and it exempts the most powerful elected official of all \u2013 the President of the United States \u2013 from a stock trading ban.\u201d\n\n\u201cToday is not a serious attempt to address the kind of corruption here in Washington that the American people may care about,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cAnd to add further proof to that point, this isn\u2019t just a sham attempt to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, because it includes a voter ID poison pill in it. This so-called \u2018Voter ID\u2019 bill would impose a far stricter and more burdensome federal standard than all 50 states.\u201d\n\nPadilla sounded the alarm on Republicans\u2019 baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, emphasizing their efforts to distract from their failed leadership and policies that are raising costs on American families. Padilla raised concerns about issues that Trump and MAGA Republicans should focus on instead of spreading election and voter disinformation.\n\n\u201cWhen families are struggling with rising inflation, the rising costs of health care and housing, groceries, mortgages, gas prices, an unauthorized war in Iran. Instead of actually addressing those issues with the real proposals, they\u2019re seeking to distract and confuse. The American people deserve better than this,\u201d Senator Padilla concluded.\n\nAs Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee, which has oversight over federal elections, Padilla has led the charge opposing Trump\u2019s overreaching anti-voter SAVE Act. Last month, Padilla led his Senate colleagues in once again defeating MAGA Republicans\u2019 efforts to advance Senator Jon Husted (R-Ohio)\u2019s voter ID bill, a provision of the SAVE Act. In July, Padilla tried twice to call up a bipartisan bill that would ban members of Congress and their family members, as well as the President and Vice President, from trading stocks \u2013 but Republicans blocked it both times. In June, Padilla led his Senate Democratic colleagues in defeating Republicans\u2019 efforts to include the SAVE Act in their anti-immigrant reconciliation bill twice in one night. During the failed March 2026 \u201ctalking filibuster\u201d attempt, Padilla took to the Senate floor four times as a leader in the Democratic opposition to the SAVE Act. Padilla has also led legislation to prohibit the president from monetizing his office by selling inside early access to official announcements to investors.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available here.\n\nTranscript of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available below:\n\nMr. President, here we are, 34 days before Election Day, or, as I like to suggest, 34 days before the final day to vote because we\u2019re encouraging people to cast their ballot early, if they can, or vote by mail if and where they can.\n\nBut instead of talking about the issues that are most on the minds of American families, Republicans are here again trying to distract from those issues and to, frankly, create confusion amongst voters in order to protect the president and the party from your failed policies.\n\nNow, Senate Democrats, Senate Democrats agree that something real needs to happen to rein in the ability of elected officials, especially members of Congress, from making decisions that impact the companies in their stock portfolios.\n\nThat is true. The American people deserve to have confidence that their elected representatives are making decisions in the best interest of the American people, and not in your bank account or in your stock investments.\n\nBut that\u2019s not what this bill will do.\n\nThis bill does not ban members of Congress from holding stocks or trading stocks, and it exempts the most powerful elected official of all \u2013 the president of the United States \u2013 from a stock trading ban.\n\nNow let\u2019s be clear, colleagues, because we\u2019ve seen this time and again. When the president makes announcements or posts on Truth Social, he has the potential to move markets, shift the economy. And that\u2019s truly an awesome power, one that nobody should be able to exploit for their own profit.\n\nBut that\u2019s exactly what Donald Trump has done and has done over and over again.\n\nThat\u2019s why, since returning to office last year, his net worth has grown some 4 to 5 billion dollars, billion with a B, Mr. President.\n\nNow, ABC News showed us that just last year, he made over 21,000 stock trades across 8 accounts \u2013 in a matter of 80 \u2013 with the average of about 85 trades per day. 85 trades per day!\n\nDoes that sound like someone who is singularly focused on improving the quality of life for the American people?\n\nI don\u2019t think so.\n\nBloomberg News found that President Trump has traded stocks more than every member of Congress combined.\n\nThink about that for a minute.\n\nOne person, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, the trader-in-chief, made more stock trades in one year than all 535 members of Congress.\n\nNow, NBC News found that 327 of these were made exactly one day before he rolled back his, quote, \u201cLiberation Day,\u201d tariffs. Was that a coincidence? I think not.\n\nHow much grift from his own decision-making? The American people deserve to know.\n\nBut the president\u2019s corruption goes even further.\n\nHis social media company is literally selling access to hedge funds and Wall Street brokers, early access to his major market-shaping announcements.\n\nLet that sink in for a moment.\n\nTrump has been making more stock trades than all of Congress combined while backing a ban that excludes him.\n\nThat\u2019s what the bill before us does. Is it any surprise that the president supports a bill that does nothing to rein him in?\n\nHow can we possibly go home and tell the American people with a straight face that we\u2019re stopping the corruption in Washington when the biggest exploiter is the president and he is immune from these \u2013 from this bill?\n\nThe authors of this bill refuse to put any restrictions or guardrails on the biggest, most corrupt federal stock trader of all.\n\nNow, don\u2019t take that to mean that Democrats don\u2019t want to do anything in this space. We do.\n\nIn fact, the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee last year put out a bipartisan bill that would actually address this issue.\n\nBut folks watching at home should recognize that that bipartisan bill, with teeth, is not what Republicans have chosen to put on the floor today, 34 days before Election Day.\n\nInstead, it\u2019s this sham bill that doesn\u2019t have the teeth and doesn\u2019t rein in the trader-in-chief.\n\nI\u2019ve tried to bring up that bill, by the way, repeatedly in this Senate, and Senate Republicans have blocked it on multiple occasions.\n\nSo, today is not a serious attempt to address the kind of corruption here in Washington that the American people may care about.\n\nAnd to add further proof to that point, this isn\u2019t just an a \u2013 a sham attempt to ban members of Congress from trading stocks because it includes a voter ID poison pill in it.\n\nThis so-called \u201cVoter ID\u201d bill would impose a far stricter and more burdensome federal standard than all 50 states.\n\nYou know, some states have voter ID, some states don\u2019t. Those that do have laws at the state level that require an ID, but it allows tribal IDs or student IDs, if issued by the state government or a state entity, to count.\n\nBut the federal provisions in this bill do not.\n\nAnd it goes even worse for the one-third of American voters that prefer to vote by mail and they have that option in their state.\n\nAnd 80% of Californians, by the way.\n\nThis requirement that you have to have a copy of your ID in the envelope with your ballot for it to count eviscerates the secret ballot that we value so much.\n\nHere\u2019s what the Republican lieutenant governor of Utah had to say \u2013 in Utah, the lieutenant governor is also the state election official \u2013 when it was included in the SAVE Act, and now it\u2019s in the measure before us:\n\nQuote, \u201cThe SAVE America Act requires a vote to include a photo copy of their ID, violating our constitutional right to a secret ballot.\u201d\n\nSo, don\u2019t just take my word for it. Republican governor of Utah.\n\nAnd she\u2019s not the only Republican opposed to this kind of legislation.\n\nThe Republican governor of Ohio vetoed a similar state bill, saying, quote, \u201cThe measure would not discourage fraud, would not add any real security, and would create additional and significant burden for Ohioans who vote by mail.\u201d\n\nAll for what? For the, uh, in pursuit of the Big Lie?\n\nThe president\u2019s been claiming for, what, a decade now about massive voter fraud, while every expert, every study has found the same thing. Despite the conspiracy theories \u2013 voter fraud is already illegal \u2013 let\u2019s establish that, it\u2019s already on the books as illegal. But it\u2019s also extremely, extremely rare.\n\nSo what is this bill truly about, anyway? It\u2019s not cracking down, as Republicans claim it is.\n\nIt\u2019s not going to, you know, address the massive voter fraud that does not exist. Again, it\u2019s misdirection. It\u2019s a distraction. And it threatens to suppress the vote. 34 days before the election.\n\nAnd, all of a sudden, Republicans realize that the only thing they have to show for their control of government for the last two years, right \u2014 you\u2019re the majority in the Senate, you\u2019re the majority in the House. Your party occupies the White House.\n\nWhen families are struggling with rising inflation, the rising costs of health care and housing, groceries, mortgages, gas prices, an unauthorized war in Iran.\n\nInstead of actually addressing those issues with the real proposals, they\u2019re seeking to distract and confuse.\n\nThe American people deserve better than this.\n\nAnd I urge all my colleagues to vote no on this cynical measure. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.\n\n###", 1, "2026-10-01T11:23:28Z", "2026-10-01T11:25:15Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-leads-final-pre-midterm-effort-to-defeat-anti-voter-save-act-condemns-trump-corruption/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7107979618012905, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}