WASHINGTON – House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., announced this morning that he will be taking a leave of absence from his position as the House’s top tax writer amid a flurry of ethics inquiries.
Rangel told reporters this morning that he has sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., informing her of his plans to temporarily step down from the leadership position. Republicans had been preparing a vote in the House that would force Rangel to give up his chairmanship. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., is officially next in line to take over the committee.
Last week, a House ethics committee publicly admonished Rangel for taking corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in violation of Congressional gift rules. And he is still under ethical investigation on a number of other fronts, including his failure to report $75,000 in rental income he earned on a villa he owned and whether he enjoyed below-market rates on four New York City apartments, one of which he used as an office.
Rangel has played a major role over the years in crafting legislation that significantly changed the municipal bond market, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s creation of Build America Bonds.
