House Ethics Committee Votes Unanimously to Expand Rangel Investigation

On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to expand its investigation of Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY), perhaps one of the most powerful members of Congress. The committee will now be looking into his alleged failure to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of assets on mandatory congressional financial forms.

Rangle has been under investigation for over a year now over several issues relating to financial impropriety. The head of the influential Ways and Means Committee, Rangel has admitted to failing to pay taxes on $75,000 in income from a rental property that he owns in the Dominican Republic.

House Democrats defeated a resolution on Wednesday 246 to 153 that would have forced Rangel to step down from his chairmanship for the duration of the investigation.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to force Rangel to step down:

"The American people won't stand for having a chairman of the House's tax-writing committee who is under investigation for not paying his taxes. What more has to happen before Speaker Pelosi does the right thing?"

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer refused to say whether he thought Rangel should step down, stating that the Ethics Committee needs time to do what "they ought to do. I don't thinkwe ought to draw conclusions from that because they're doing an investigation."

Rangel says that he is the victim of a smear campaign by some members of the media. His spokesman, Emile Milne, said in response to today's decision:

"As a practical matter, today's announcement is nothing new,. Today's action by the committee is a technicality, as everything they referenced in today's announcement has already been subject to ongoing review by the ethics committee and its staff.

It is clear that the committee is being very thorough and deliberative in their process, hence today's announcement."