Ethics To Review Rangel Apartment, Letters

The House ethics panel announced Thursday that it would review Rep. Charles B. Rangel's lease of four rent-stabilized apartments in a Harlem high-rise as well as his use of congressional letterhead to contact potential donors to an educational center that bears his name.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, otherwise known as the ethics committee, put out a release Thursday evening from Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Washington state Rep. Doc Hastings, the panel's ranking Republican,  to announce they are "reviewing these matters pursuant to committee rules."

Earlier in the day, Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio offered a privileged resolution to publicly reprimand Rangel, the prominent New York Democrat who chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee. But lawmakers, including many of Boehner's Republican colleagues, quickly blocked the measure from coming to the floor.

Rangel asked the ethics committee last week to examine his lease of four rent-stabilized units in the Lenox Terrace apartment complex at below-market rates and his use of congressional letterhead to contact potential donors to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

In a related matter, Tubbs Jones and Hastings announced that Kenyen R. Brown as the acting staff director and chief counsel. Brown has been the deputy chief counsel since May. He previously served on the Senate Select Committee on Ethics for nine years. Brown replaces William O'Reilly, who announced his intentions to step down earlier this month.