Most senators profess support for a bill to ban insider trading by members of Congress. But somehow the bill has quickly become snarled in a tangle of friendly and unfriendly amendments.

Prospects for the legislation looked bright on Monday when the Senate voted 93 to 2 to take up the measure, which would prohibit lawmakers from trading stocks on the basis of confidential information they gain by virtue of their public office.

Just 48 hours later the sponsors of the bill were trying to keep it on track. Some senators wanted to make it tougher. Some wanted to make it weaker. And some wanted to address tangential issues.

“At some point, this becomes ridiculous,” said the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. “Senators come over here and say they are not going to allow a vote on an amendment unless they are guaranteed votes on non-germane, non-relevant amendments. It becomes a circus.”

More generally, sponsors of the bill said they had heard grumbling from colleagues in both parties about the bill’s requirement for lawmakers to disclose stock sales and purchases within 30 days of the transactions. Some senators with big stock portfolios have apparently suggested that this would be an unreasonable burden.

The House measure, offered by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, omits a Senate provision that would set a new disclosure requirement for companies that gather political information and sell it to investors.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1mOGcTI83