GOP Rep. Carol Miller just violated a federal conflict-of-interest and transparency law

• GOP Rep. Carol Miller of West Virginia just violated a federal conflict-of-interest law and transparency law.
• Legislators are required to disclose — within 45 days — stock trades made by themselves or a spouse.

Republican Rep. Carol Miller of West Virginia has violated a federal conflict-of-interest and transparency law, an Insider review of her most recent financial disclosure found.

Miller violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, which, in part, requires members of Congress to file disclosures within 45 days of making a stock transaction or financial trade by themselves, their spouse, or dependent child.

Miller reported that her husband, Matthew Miller, made trades in 21 separate stocks at various points during 2021, but she did not publicly disclose these trades until this week.

Miller's husband's trades include stock in pharmaceutical giant and COVID-19 vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson, Quest Diagnostics, Gilead Sciences, and the Clorox Company. He also bought or sold stock in defense contractors General Dynamics and L3Harris.

Taken together, her husband's trades were cumulatively worth anywhere between $217,021 and $805,000 — lawmakers are not required to provide the specific value of their trades, and instead, report them in broad ranges.

Miller's communications director, Tatum Wallace, acknowledged the late trades, telling Insider: "There was a technical error that we noticed when completing the yearly disclosure. It has since been rectified and we're working with the [House Committee on Ethics] to make sure everything is correct."

Since 2021, Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project and other publications have together uncovered 72 lawmakers, now including Miller, who have violated the STOCK Act by disclosing their trades late. The list includes Democrats and Republicans, back-benchers and members of congressional leadership alike.

Insider also found at least 182 senior congressional staffers who also violated provisions of the STOCK Act.

A congressional stock-trade ban?

As Miller's husband trades stocks, the congresswoman's peers in Congress have for months been debating whether federal lawmakers and their spouses should even be allowed to trade individual stocks at all.

On September 1, a group of 8 Democratic and 1 Republican House members sent a letter to House leadership to "respectfully urge" them and the Committee on House Administration to bring a bill banning lawmakers from trading to a vote on the floor for a vote before the end of September.

The letter includes a list of "first principles" that each of the signees agreed should be included in the final bill, including making sure the ban covers members, their spouses, and children under the age of 18.

Despite the letter to leadership, it's unclear if and when leadership, which has itself been crafting its own stock-ban legislation, will bring a proposal to the floor for a vote. A group of senators has likewise been working on a plan.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was originally opposed to a congressional stock ban in late 2021 before acquiescing to bipartisan calls to ban the practice. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced in early 2022 that he'd consider seeking to ban lawmakers from trading stocks if GOP lawmakers take control of the House after the November midterm elections.

Miller's office did not answer Insider's inquiry about where the congresswoman stands on the push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.