CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Jan. 20, 2009 – 7:49 p.m.
Ethics Case Knocks Against Rangel’s Tax Acumen
By Bennett Roth, CQ Staff
The success of much of President Obama’s agenda might hinge on the heavy lifting of powerful Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel , chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. But the veteran New York lawmaker’s political muscle might be strained in the coming months as his personal finances and fund-raising remain under investigation by the House ethics committee.
The inquiry will be handed off to the incoming chairwoman of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Zoe Lofgren , D-Calif., and the ranking Republican, Jo Bonner of Alabama. The panel could continue an investigation begun last year or appoint a new subcommittee to look into the charges.
Rangel insists the ethics investigation is not distracting him from committee work, including the tax portion of the economic stimulus package Obama has requested.
But the chairman acknowledged during a Ways and Means Committee meeting last week that news stories about his ethics issues are a liability. “If there is a pile-on, it does become luggage,” said Rangel, who criticized reporters for repeating allegations against him, most reported first by The New York Times, without investigating the matters themselves.
House GOP leaders and watchdog groups want Rangel to step down from his chairmanship during the investigation.
“There is a fear this will be a huge distraction,” said Ways and Means Republican Kevin Brady of Texas, who said his colleagues suspect that with Rangel weakened, “the Speaker’s office will be running too much of the committee.”
But Rangel refuses to budge, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and other Democrats have so far insisted that the ethics investigation has not hampered Rangel’s ability to handle legislation.
“When I go home, people are worried about health care and a new, fair tax system,” said Jim McGovern , D-Mass. “These are things Charlie Rangel has a role to play in.” The only people talking about Rangel, McGovern said, are “Republicans here in Congress.”
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in New York, said that with the scandal involving Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich , D-Ill., dominating headlines, Democrats have to worry that Rangel’s ethics issues will add to a perception that the party does not represent a new, cleaner politics promised by Obama. “His timing is bad because of ethics being front and center,” Miringoff said.
But Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Democrats are loath to desert Rangel because they like him and are fearful of disrupting the Ways and Means Committee, which will help shape economic recovery and health reform legislation.
“They want to avoid a controversy or schism or a stain at this time,” Ornstein said. “If he was a widely disliked or a widely controversial figure, you might have a different matter.”
Still, Ornstein said Rangel’s case should have been referred to the recently created Office of Congressional Ethics, a group of former lawmakers and outsiders that the House in the 110th Congress created to look into ethics charges. Ornstein said that would allow House members on the ethics committee to avoid the perception that they could not fairly judge one of their own.
Array of Allegations
Gene Green , D-Texas, the outgoing ethics committee chairman who headed the Rangel investigation, said it is important for the committee to finish its work quickly. “We need to get this past us or you will all eat us alive if we don’t make a case one way or the other,” Green said. He said the committee staff has interviewed many witnesses but has more work to do. Green said the committee must also give Rangel a chance to defend himself. Rangel has not appeared before the committee.
The ethics committee is looking into Rangel’s efforts to raise money for a public policy school to be named in his honor from a chief executive of an offshore drilling company that benefited from tax legislation handled by Ways and Means. It is also investigating the chairman’s use of his House stationery in soliciting funds for the school.
Other issues include Rangel’s failure to pay federal taxes on income from rental property in the Dominican Republic, and whether his lease of four rent-controlled apartments for his New York City residence and campaign office amounted to a gift that exceeded the $100 House gift limit.
Rangel has denied any wrongdoing and said some of the allegations resulted from misunderstandings.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Rangel’s use of House stationery and his failure to report rental income showed arrogance, but she added that the chairman “isn’t the first member to screw up his financial disclosure.”
Sloan said the allegation that Rangel solicited school donations from the chief executive of the offshore drilling company that later benefited from a tax break is more worrisome.
Business as Usual
A high school dropout raised by his seamstress mother, Rangel joined the Army and won a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star during the Korean War. For almost four decades he has represented the heavily African-American and Hispanic district encompassing upper Manhattan’s Harlem and Washington Heights.
An unabashed liberal with an unmistakably gravelly voice and natural wit, Rangel has amassed power and friends since his first election to the House in 1970. Many of the Democrats who would be called upon to pass judgment on his conduct should the ethics committee recommend disciplinary action have benefited from Rangel’s fundraising talent. During the 2008 election cycle, his campaign and political committees contributed $2.4 million to 190 Democratic candidates and party organizations, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by CQ Political Moneyline.
A $1,000 contribution went to Lucille Roybal-Allard , D-Calif., who served on the House ethics panel during the 110th Congress but cannot serve in the current session because of term limits.
Democratic candidates showed no reluctance to accept his money, Rangel noted, even though Republicans attempted to make an issue of his campaign assistance.
And as the ethics committee decides how to proceed, K Street lobbyists are doing business as usual with the chairman. One lobbyist who specializes in tax issues for a large law firm said that although the chairman’s future status is unpredictable, he is keeping in contact with Rangel’s staff. “I don’t see any of us downtown doing anything differently,” the lobbyist said.
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