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US ethics panel: NY congressman broke travel rules
Source: Agencies |
February 27, 2010, Saturday
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FACING potential November election losses and a stuck-in-the-mud legislative program, Democrats can now add to their worries the ethics problems of chief House tax writer Rep. Charles Rangel.
The House ethics committee accused Rangel on Thursday of accepting corporate money for trips to Caribbean conferences in violation of House rules. The committee said it could not determine whether Rangel knew about the financing, but found that his staff did - and concluded Rangel was responsible for learning the truth.
Ironically, as the ethics committee was finalizing its report, the New York Democrat, 79, was attending President Barack Obama's bipartisan summit in an attempt to rescue the party's stalled health care bill, Obama's top legislative priority.
Rangel's case is certain to raise questions of whether the lawmaker, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, can retain his post in an election year. He was first elected to Congress in 1970.
It is the latest woe for Democrats, who are facing the possibility of big losses in the November congressional vote. Despite having majorities in both chambers of Congress, they have struggled to win approval for the health care overhaul and other major legislation.
Rangel said yesterday he will not step down as committee chairman despite the ethics committee's finding.
He said that the ethics report "exonerates" him because it says there is no evidence that he knew the trips were sponsored by corporations. The report said his staff knew who paid for the trips.
Rangel said he truly does not understand why the committee admonished him.
The Ways and Means chairmanship is especially important this year, as Democrats address health care and Congress has to decide what to do about billions of dollars in tax cuts Americans at every income level have enjoyed for a decade - but are due to expire in December.
The leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, sidestepped a question on Rangel's fate while noting that Rangel remains under investigation on various other alleged ethics lapses. "We'll just see what happens next," Pelosi told reporters.
Rep. Gene Taylor, became the first Democrat to suggest that Rangel should give up chairmanship of the committee, which originates not only tax laws but also benefit programs that now pay nearly half the costs for Americans' health care.
Taylor told reporters Rangel should "either step down or step aside until this is resolved." Taylor is one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. Rangel, who represents Harlem, is one of the most liberal.
If this was Rangel's only ethics problem, it might not be crippling to Democrats. But still looming is a much larger ethics investigation. That one is focusing in part on Rangel's use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name; and his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets and income.
The unreported assets included a federal credit union account worth between $250,001 and $500,000; a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building in New York.
The ethics panel also ended another widespread investigation Thursday, saying it found no violations of House rules by seven lawmakers who steered government money and projects and contracts to favored companies that donated to their re-election campaigns.
In the Rangel case, the ethics committee exonerated five other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who also were on the 2007 and 2008 trips to conferences in Antigua and St. Maarten but told them they will have to pay the costs of the trips.
The panel's report did not include any formal charges that could have brought a more serious censure against Rangel.
Rangel, at a hastily called news conference Thursday night, blamed his staff for his problems.
"Common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff unless there's reason to believe that member knew or should have known, and there is nothing in the record to indicate the latter," Rangel said. He refused to answer questions.
The House ethics committee accused Rangel on Thursday of accepting corporate money for trips to Caribbean conferences in violation of House rules. The committee said it could not determine whether Rangel knew about the financing, but found that his staff did - and concluded Rangel was responsible for learning the truth.
Ironically, as the ethics committee was finalizing its report, the New York Democrat, 79, was attending President Barack Obama's bipartisan summit in an attempt to rescue the party's stalled health care bill, Obama's top legislative priority.
Rangel's case is certain to raise questions of whether the lawmaker, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, can retain his post in an election year. He was first elected to Congress in 1970.
It is the latest woe for Democrats, who are facing the possibility of big losses in the November congressional vote. Despite having majorities in both chambers of Congress, they have struggled to win approval for the health care overhaul and other major legislation.
Rangel said yesterday he will not step down as committee chairman despite the ethics committee's finding.
He said that the ethics report "exonerates" him because it says there is no evidence that he knew the trips were sponsored by corporations. The report said his staff knew who paid for the trips.
Rangel said he truly does not understand why the committee admonished him.
The Ways and Means chairmanship is especially important this year, as Democrats address health care and Congress has to decide what to do about billions of dollars in tax cuts Americans at every income level have enjoyed for a decade - but are due to expire in December.
The leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, sidestepped a question on Rangel's fate while noting that Rangel remains under investigation on various other alleged ethics lapses. "We'll just see what happens next," Pelosi told reporters.
Rep. Gene Taylor, became the first Democrat to suggest that Rangel should give up chairmanship of the committee, which originates not only tax laws but also benefit programs that now pay nearly half the costs for Americans' health care.
Taylor told reporters Rangel should "either step down or step aside until this is resolved." Taylor is one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. Rangel, who represents Harlem, is one of the most liberal.
If this was Rangel's only ethics problem, it might not be crippling to Democrats. But still looming is a much larger ethics investigation. That one is focusing in part on Rangel's use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name; and his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets and income.
The unreported assets included a federal credit union account worth between $250,001 and $500,000; a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building in New York.
The ethics panel also ended another widespread investigation Thursday, saying it found no violations of House rules by seven lawmakers who steered government money and projects and contracts to favored companies that donated to their re-election campaigns.
In the Rangel case, the ethics committee exonerated five other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who also were on the 2007 and 2008 trips to conferences in Antigua and St. Maarten but told them they will have to pay the costs of the trips.
The panel's report did not include any formal charges that could have brought a more serious censure against Rangel.
Rangel, at a hastily called news conference Thursday night, blamed his staff for his problems.
"Common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff unless there's reason to believe that member knew or should have known, and there is nothing in the record to indicate the latter," Rangel said. He refused to answer questions.
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