Rangel Steps Aside From Post During Ethics Inquiry
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Representative Charles B. Rangel outside the House Ways and Means Committee room on Wednesday.
By CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: March 3, 2010
WASHINGTON —Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York announced on Wednesday that he would temporarily step down from his powerful post as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in an attempt to avert a politically bruising fight over permanently stripping the gavel from his hands.
Readers' Comments
"A sad day for N.Y. Democrats, a party already having serious problems in the governor's office; another effective politician who just got too big for his boots."
Joan Nicholson, Austin, Texas
“In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work” on a number of accusations against him, the congressman said in a hurriedly scheduled meeting with reporters.
The ethics committee admonished Mr. Rangel last week for violating Congressional gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008, even in his own party support for him had started to evaporate this week.
Mr. Rangel’s announcement came as Republicans were pressing for a vote calling for his ouster, while several Democrats had already made clear that they would no longer support Mr. Rangel. A veteran House member, he is the dean of the New York delegation and has long been a popular and influential figure in Congress.
It remained unclear whether Mr. Rangel’s decision to temporarily remove himself would satisfy the demands by Republicans to permanently remove him from the helm of the committee, which exerts enormous legislative influence in the House as it controls legislation involving taxes and revenues. While Mr. Rangel said he was taking a leave of absence from his post, it was hard to see a way back for him in the current circumstances and political climate.
In his brief appearance, Mr. Rangel declined to answer questions in detail, saying that to do so would raise issues that “would distract me from what I have to do in terms of completion of the president’s health bill as well as making sure our committee gets a good jobs bill.”
The ethics panel is still investigating more serious accusations regarding Mr. Rangel’s fund-raising, his failure to pay federal taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic and his use of four rent-stabilized apartments provided by a Manhattan real estate developer.
In his letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting his leave of absence, Mr. Rangel said it would last “until such time as the Committee on Standards completes its findings on the review currently under way.”
Ms. Pelosi issued a short statement saying she would honor Mr. Rangel’s request.
“I commend Chairman Rangel for his decades of leadership on jobs, health care, and the most significant economic issues of the day,” her statement said.
His decision confronts Democrats with a choice of who should take over the ways and means panel at a crucial time in the push for a health care overhaul; the central tax questions and other prime issues in the health plan are typically the province of that panel. Democratic officials said Representatives Sander M. Levin of Michigan and John Lewis of Georgia were possible choices.
The announcement clashed with Mr. Rangel’s statement Tuesday that he would not step down following a meeting with senior party leaders, including Ms. Pelosi. After that session, top officials said they were uncertain what Mr. Rangel might do, even as he declared that he would not step aside, even temporarily.
The decision did not immediately quiet Republican criticism of House Democrats, who had used Republican ethics problems in their successful push for control of the House in 2006.
“This embarrassing episode is a self-inflicted wound that could have easily been averted had the speaker taken the obvious step to remove a scandal-plagued individual as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee,” Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Wednesday.
As he left his crisis meeting with party leaders around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Mr. Rangel insisted that he was not stepping down. Asked if he was going to remain as chairman, he said, “You bet your life.”
Pushed on whether he would step aside temporarily, he replied, “No.”
He said he was headed back to his office to work on jobs legislation, and when a reporter asked if he would still be the committee chairman on Wednesday, Mr. Rangel said, “Yes, and I don’t lie to the press.”
A growing number of rank-and-file Democrats said they could not envision standing behind the embattled chairman given the likelihood that he would soon face further reprimands by the ethics committee, and Republican challengers would criticize such a vote in the fall elections.
Representative Debbie Halvorson, Democrat of Illinois, said in a statement Tuesday: “I believe it would be most appropriate for Mr. Rangel to step aside as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. The American people are facing enormous challenges, and Congress must be completely focused, without distraction, on the important work that remains to be done to continue creating jobs, fixing health care and turning our economy around.”
Representative Artur Davis, Democrat of Alabama, on Tuesday became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to call for Mr. Rangel to step down. Mr. Rangel is one of the most senior members of the caucus; Mr. Davis is running for governor of Alabama this year.
Another member of the caucus, Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Democrat of New York, said Tuesday night that he believed Mr. Rangel retained the support of rank-and-file Democrats. “In my estimation, Mr. Rangel should stay as chairman,” Mr. Meeks said in an interview. “He will still have the overwhelming support of the Democratic caucus.”
But other lawmakers and Congressional officials said that giving up his chairmanship temporarily was perhaps the only way for Mr. Rangel to avoid the embarrassment of Democrats joining Republicans in rebuking him.
Officials said the ways and means panel had been hobbled in recent weeks. The committee has authority over the tax laws that are central to Democrats’ various jobs proposals, and it shares jurisdiction over the health care legislation.
House Republicans, seizing on the findings by the ethics committee last week, were readying a vote on a resolution aimed at stripping Mr. Rangel of his chairmanship and chiding Ms. Pelosi, who upon becoming speaker after the 2006 elections promised to run an ethical and scandal-free Congress.
Mr. Rangel, 79, who has represented Harlem since 1971, has been dogged by accusations of impropriety.
He was one of five members of the black caucus who accepted trips to attend business seminars in Antigua and Barbuda and in St. Maarten organized by the Carib News Foundation, a charity affiliated with a Caribbean-focused newspaper in New York. The conferences had been underwritten, however, by corporations like AT&T and Verizon.
The ethics committee admonished Mr. Rangel, even though it said it did not have proof he knew of the corporate sponsorships. But two members of his staff knew, and the panel said he should be held accountable.
Mr. Rangel and the other lawmakers who attended the seminars were told to repay the cost of the trips, about $11,800.
But the erosion of support for him among Democrats most likely stems from the investigations into more serious accusations, including that Mr. Rangel had failed to pay federal income taxes on a vacation property he owns in the Dominican Republic.
The ethics inquiry about Mr. Rangel started in September 2008 after reports that included assertions that he was renting four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at a price well below market value, despite rules forbidding House members from accepting gifts worth more than $50.
nytimes.com |
