WASHINGTON — House Democrats voted down an attempt Tuesday to remove Rep. Charles Rangel as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee during an ongoing ethics investigation.
The action came on the same day the House ethics committee voted to reauthorize a subcommittee of three Democrats and three Republicans to investigate Rangel, a New York Democrat who has served in Congress for nearly 40 years. The investigation began last year — at Rangel’s request — but the subcommittee needed reauthorization because a new Congress was sworn in last month.
The ethics committee is looking at Rangel’s failure to pay taxes on rental income from a beach house he owns in the Dominican Republic. Also under scrutiny are letters Rangel wrote on congressional stationery to drum up donors for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.
