By Bennett Roth and Richard Rubin, CQ Staff

Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel said Wednesday that an ongoing investigation by the ethics committee of his fundraising and personal finances would not hamper his leadership of the powerful committee.

“It does not diminish my ability to get the job done,” Rangel, D-N.Y., said after the organizing meeting of the Ways and Means Committee, which will consider the tax portion of the stimulus package. The committee also will have jurisdiction over much of the Democrats’ planned health care overhaul and over all trade legislation.

Rangel dismissed Republican calls for him to step down while the ethics committee completes its work.

“I don’t give that much consideration to the Republicans,” he said. Rangel said a number of GOP lawmakers acknowledge that there are distortions in news reports outlining allegations against him. But he added, “Some of them feel they have to do politically what the old Republican leadership has to do.”

“I would tell you this, if someone went to [House GOP leader John A.] Boehner and asked him if I was one of the most honest legislators he had ever met since he has been in the Congress — if you look him in the eyes, it would be very difficult for him to deny that,” Rangel said.

‘Utterly Inappropriate’

A spokesman for Boehner said that the minority leader still believes Rangel should step aside as Ways and Means chairman until the ethics committee completes its investigation.

“It is utterly inappropriate for him to be chairman helping to write the nation’s tax laws, including a substantial portion of the proposed economic recovery legislation, given the serious ethical charges he is facing,” said Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman.

Rangel said he has not been interviewed by the ethics panel, officially known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The congressman said he would not appear before the panel until he was asked.

Last year the ethics committee began investigating Rangel after a series of media reports raised questions about alleged improprieties, including Rangel’s seeking donations for a public policy school at the City University of New York from individuals and companies with business before his committee. The ethics committee also is looking at his failure to pay taxes on income from rental property he owned in the Dominican Republic. Rangel denied any wrongdoing and requested that the committee probe the allegations.

The subcommittee created to investigate Rangel did not complete its work by the end of the 110th Congress. Gene Green , D-Texas, led that effort.

The new ethics committee chairman — whom Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., is expected to name soon — can decide to continue the work of that subcommittee or to begin a fresh probe.

First posted Jan. 14, 2009 1:56 p.m.