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WASHINGTON – Buffeted by ethics inquiries, veteran New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel stepped down Wednesday as chairman of the House’s powerful tax-writing committee, delivering a fresh political jolt to a Democratic Party already facing angry voters.
The action also muddied the congressional picture on taxes, coming as the House moves toward difficult debate over large automatic increases that lie just over the horizon. The outcome will affect tens of millions of American taxpayers.
Rangel’s relinquishing of the Ways and Means Committee gavel spared colleagues from having to vote on a Republican-sponsored resolution to strip him of his post. But it also focused attention on ethical lapses by a top leader of a party that had promised to end a “culture of corruption” when it regained control of Congress in 2006.
Rangel, 79 and a member of Congress for the past 39 years, stepped aside just days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.
He called his exile temporary. But he still faces inquiries by the House ethics committee over late payment of income taxes on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his use of House stationery to solicit corporate donations to an educational institution that bears his name, and belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.
Veteran Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark of California will serve as acting chairman, according to Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., who was presiding over the House when Republican lawmakers posed the question Wednesday.
Stark, the next most senior Democrat on the panel, is a health policy expert and one of the most liberal members of the House.
He has a reputation for being temperamental and sharp-tongued, not a consensus builder.
Rangel, who has represented his Harlem district since 1971 and is the first black Ways and Means chairman, stepped aside in the face of increasing pressure from fellow Democrats after the House ethics committee admonished him last week for accepting trips to the Caribbean that were sponsored by several large corporations, a violation of congressional gift rules. Rangel blamed the lapse on his staff.
“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 remaining accusations against him, Rangel said at a hastily called session with reporters.
He said later that his stepping aside “should take care of the political problem” that other Democrats might have as a result of his ethics problems.
