Washington (CNN) Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has continued to hold stock in a company she said she would divest from a year prior, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

According to the Journal's report on Chao's financial disclosure forms and related documents, the Trump Cabinet official has maintained her holdings in Vulcan Materials -- holdings that have gained more than $40,000 over the past year.

In an ethics agreement at the outset of the Trump administration, Chao told the Office of Government Ethics that she would not "participate personally and substantially in any particular matter in which I know that I have a financial interest," and said she would resign her position with Vulcan Materials and anticipated receiving a cash payout for her "vested deferred stock units" in 2018, the year after she would separate from the company.

2018 financial disclosure form with OGE from Chao said again that she would receive a cash payment from Vulcan Materials, but the Journal said she was instead compensated for exiting the company in shares of the company stock and continued to hold it, rather than be cashed out.

A Department of Transportation spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday that "department ethics officials have been working to clarify the term 'cash payout' in the agreement to match what the company actually did," and maintained that Chao had followed her agreements to resign from the board of Vulcan Materials and to "not participate in matters with a direct and predictable impact" on the company.

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