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Chairmanship of House Ways and Means Remains Murky

Chairmanship of  House Ways and Means Remains Murky

At the moment its 78-year-old Democratic Michigan Rep. Sander Levin holding the gavel of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. But for how long?

 

Levin was named as acting chairman following the unexpected decision of Rep. Pete Stark (D-California) to step down after holding the position for less than 24 hours. Stark himself assumed the chairmanship only after Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) resigned under pressure because of ethics troubles.

 

However, Rangel insists that Levin is only a place-holder and that he plans to return to chair Ways and Means after he is “exonerated” by the ethics committee of the charges hanging over his head.

 

Of course that all remains to be seen.

 

What is clear is that by naming Levin the Democrats, temporarily at least, avoided what they dreaded most; additional potential political embarrassment. Democratic leaders worried that Stark, known for his brash and unpredictable style, could hurt the party with his antics.

 

In addition, the Democrats wanted to side-step a hotly contested fight among its ranks vying to preside over tax, trade and entitlement policy for years to come. With Stark stepping aside Levin, the next in seniority on the Ways and Means Committee, took over the chairman’s gavel.

 

This entire drama played out when Rangel, facing a slew of House ethics probes, recently bowed to pressure and reluctantly relinquished the chairmanship he had held for just three years. An ethics committee ruling that the long-time New York Congressman broke House gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored travel to the Caribbean.

 

Rangel disagrees with the ruling and his office sent out a lengthy email statement to select groups and individuals including us here at Turner GPA. Below is an excerpt from the Congressman email.

   The Standards Committee report holds Congressman Rangelaccountable under the rules for errors by his staff, even though itacknowledges that he did not know of those errors. The Committee'sconclusion is wrong on the facts and unsupported by the law. The report's errors could have been avoided if the Committee had notadopted its conclusions before giving Congressman Rangel an opportunityto respond...  Without justification, the report disregards the undisputed testimony ofthe Congressman's staff that they did not know that corporate funds werebeing used other than as approved by the Committee... In short, the Committee's decision is ill-considered, unprecedented,unfair to Congressman Rangel, and wrong on the facts and the law.  

Despite the ethics cloud hanging over him, Rangel is seeking re-election.

 

“This time I may get less than 90% of the vote,” he confident said to a New York reporter.

 

According to our sources several Democrats are sizing-up their chances of eventually stepping into the Ways and Means Chairmanship they include Rep. Richard Neal (Massachusetts), Rep. Jim McDermott (Washington) and Rep. John Lewis (Georgia).