International- House Democrat
Donna Shalala , a Florida Representative, has been appointed to the Congressional Oversight Committee to oversee the coronavirus bailout. - She hasn't filed a "periodic transaction report" detailing her stock trades in an apparent violation of federal law.
- The two Republicans on the committee — Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rep. French Hill of Arkansas — have both filed their own stock reports.
- A spokesperson for Shalala's office said the violation was "a misunderstanding."
- Shalala still holds between $300,000 and $615,000 in UnitedHealth stock and sits on the Education and Labor Committee, which oversees healthcare initiatives for workers.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Rep. Donna Shalala, a Florida Democrat who joined the Congressional Oversight Committee on April 17, appears to have violated federal law by not reporting her stock sales.
Shalala did not file a "periodic transaction report" about those sales within 45 days, which is required under the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, the Miami Herald first reported.
The most recent financial disclosure report publicly available covers only her stock assets from 2018. She took office in January 2019.
As a member of the committee, the freshman Congresswoman will supervise the federal government's coronavirus bailout. On Monday, she told the Miami Herald that she divested from most stocks that could present a conflict of interest in 2019.
Even so, her disclosures "fall outside the 45-day window" following a stock sale that the STOCK Act allows, according to The American Prospect.
The other members of
Jessica Killin, Shalala's chief of staff, told the Miami Herald that Shalala started to put other holdings into a blind trust in January 2019.
"The process of doing a blind trust in the House of Representatives is a complicated one, and she was in constant contact with the Ethics Committee," Killin said. "In the meantime, in a complete abundance of caution, she divested and sold almost all of her individual stock holdings, and transferred them to mutual funds and [exchange-traded funds]."
According to her most recent financial disclosure report, which reflects Shalala's holdings from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018, she held stock in a series of companies that will likely receive bailout money, wrote David Dayen of The Prospect.
That includes Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Spirit Aerosystems, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell, Occidental Petroleum, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, BBVA Compass, and HSBC.
Shalala's spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. The spokesperson directed Business Insider to an interview Shalala did with CBS Miami, published Wednesday afternoon.
Shalala's failure to disclose her stock sales was 'a misunderstanding,' her office says
Shalala's office said she had sold "most" of her stocks, like her shares of Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Chevron, Conoco, AMC Networks, and others.
"We just wanted to make sure everything was completely aboveboard," Killin told the Miami Herald. "She's willing to divest any other stock holdings she has."
When asked about Shalala's apparent violation of the STOCK Act, a spokesperson said it was a simple mistake.
"She had a misunderstanding about the periodic transaction report process and her need to report the sale of these stocks while preparing a blind trust," spokesperson Carlos Condarco told the Miami Herald. "As a new member with a broker and attorney who were not familiar with the congressional disclosure rules, there was a misunderstanding."
Shalala still has between $300,000 and $615,000 in stocks for UnitedHealth, a health insurance company, according to her 2019 disclosure form. But she remains on the Education and Labor Committee, which has jurisdiction over healthcare legislation, according to The American Prospect.
Shalala is "happy to get rid of" those shares, Killin told the Miami Herald.
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