House Votes to Shelve Resolution Against Rep. Rangel

The House has voted to table, or set aside, a resolution designed to temporarily remove Rep. Charlie Rangel from his post as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. John Carter, R-Tex., authored the resolution. Carter thinks the House should require Rangel to step aside from his chairmanship while the House Ethics Committee investigates potential wrongdoing by the New York Democrat.

Last summer, Rangel himself asked the Ethics committee to probe several areas of his conduct.

They include:

- His use of House stationary to help raise money for a school of public affairs in his honor at City College of New York.

- His failure to pay taxes on a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic.

- His use of four rent-controlled apartments in Harlem.

- His use of a parking space in a House parking garage for a broken down, unregistered Mercedes-Benz.

Carter's resolution came to the House floor for a vote Tuesday evening. But then Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., moved to table Carter's proposal.

The vote was 242-157 with 16 lawmakers voting present.

Many of the lawmakers voting present serve in the Ethics Committee investigating Rangel or are in a designated "pool" of lawmakers to conduct future ethics investigations.

In late November, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., indicated that she thought the Ethics Committee would complete its inquiry of Rangel by early January. But Tuesday, the ethics panel reauthorized its investigation of the chairman for the 111th Congress.