Donna Shalala sets up blind trust, sells stock related to CARES Act oversight

Miami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala is creating a blind trust and selling most of her individual stock holdings as she prepares to oversee the Trump administration’s handling of $2 trillion in taxpayer funds to fight the effects of the coronavirus.

Shalala’s office told the Miami Herald Monday that she began selling individual stocks immediately after filing to run for Congress in March 2018 to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest between her public office and her private business interests.

And shortly after she took office in January 2019, she began working with the House Ethics Committee to set up a blind trust for her assets and transfer her individual stock holdings into diversified investments like mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, according to Shalala’s chief of staff.

“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,” said Jessica Killin, Shalala’s chief of staff. “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.]

Shalala’s acknowledgment of the financial steps she’s taking came three days after she was appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the congressional panel tasked with overseeing the Treasury Department’s work to distribute $500 billion to large corporations affected by the coronavirus.

Shalala’s appointment prompted criticism from the left-leaning outlet The American Prospect, which noted that the Miami congresswoman owned stocks in companies like Boeing and Alaska Airlines that stand to receive coronavirus- related bailout money. The American Prospect used Shalala’s most recent financial disclosure form, which covered January 2017 through December 2018, to analyze Shalala’s portfolio.

But Shalala’s office said she’s since sold “most” of her individual stocks, including her shares of Boeing in March 2018 and her shares of Alaska Airlines in March 2019. She also sold individual stocks in companies that could apply for bailout money, including Chevron, Conoco, AMC Networks and two firms advising the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve on the disbursement of loans and funds: Moelis and BlackRock. Those transactions occurred in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on global markets, her office said.

“We just wanted to make sure everything was completely aboveboard,” Killin said. “She’s willing to divest any other stock holdings she has.”

Killin said they anticipate the blind trust to be set up by August, when her next financial disclosure is due. Every member of the House of Representatives received a 90-day extension to file the paperwork due to the coronavirus, pushing the deadline from mid-May to mid-August.

The Ethics Committee declined to comment.

Shalala said her role on the coronavirus oversight board, a bipartisan panel consisting of Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Republican Rep. French Hill of Arkansas, a former economic adviser for Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a yet-to-be-named chairperson, will be to “make sure the money is distributed fairly and accurately.”

“Treasury got a huge pot of money to bail out large industries, specifically airlines,” Shalala said. “What we’re really after is mischief. We’re after fraud.”

Killin said Shalala was appointed to the panel by Pelosi because of her experience managing bureaucracy as the Secretary of Health and Human Services during President Bill Clinton’s administration, and that her expertise differs from that of Toomey and Hill, who are both former bankers.

“She also comes in with this gravitas and knowledge of the way government organizations should work,” Killin said. “It is ultimately about structured finance, but it’s also about protecting the American taxpayer and avoiding the haves and have-nots we had with [the 2008 bank bailout].”

Shalala said the oversight panel will not have subpoena power, but will carry weight as a bipartisan tool to oversee spending.

“We have the power of Congress,” Shalala said. “I fully expect us to be able to have considerable access and transparency.”

Shalala’s announcement of her stock sales and blind trust came as other members of Congress have called for legislation that would prevent lawmakers from trading individual stocks.

Prominent Democrats including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for the ban after North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr sold millions in stocks weeks before the coronavirus tanked markets — but after he received classified briefings on the virus.

Shalala’s office said she continues to hold individual stock in UnitedHealth, one of the country’s largest for-profit health insurers. Her 2019 disclosure form listed $300,000 to $615,000 in UnitedHealth stock, with $100,000 to $1 million in income from capital gains and dividends. Shalala earned around $680,000 in compensation as a UnitedHealth board member before leaving in 2007, and in 2005 sold 61,000 shares of stock worth more than $5.4 million.

Shalala, who opposes Medicare-for-All, was criticized by other Democrats during her 2018 campaign for her UnitedHealth assets.

Killin said Shalala is “happy to get rid of” her UnitedHealth stock. She also said Shalala’s stake in UnitedHealth and Lennar, a Miami-based home construction company where Shalala earned at least $730,000 in deferred compensation, stocks and options during her 13 years and two stints on the company’s board, will not overlap with her oversight work because neither company is eligible for the Treasury Department’s bailout program.

Shalala reported $77,500 in income for her work on Lennar’s board in 2018, though she resigned from the position before entering Congress. She also reported between $115,000 and $300,000 in Lennar stock on her 2019 disclosure form.