House Dems approve ethics panel appointments

House Democrats added four of their members to the ethics
committee Thursday, enabling the paralyzed panel to get up and running once
again.

The House Democratic Steering Committee and full caucus
approved Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) appointments of a whole new slate
for the ethics panel, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) as chairwoman and
Reps. G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Kathy Castor (Fla.), Ben Chandler (Ky.) and
Peter Welch (Vt.) to fill four vacancies on the panel.

{mosads}Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), who had been serving as acting
chairman of the ethics panel since former Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones’s
(D-Ohio) death in August, was term-limited and is no longer a committee member.
In addition, the next two senior Democrats on the panel, Reps. Lucille
Roybal-Allard (Calif.) and Mike Doyle (Pa.), also served the final year of
their three terms last year and are no longer committee members. Rep. Bill
Delahunt (D-Mass.) was allowed to leave the panel before his three terms of
service were up.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently elevated
Rep. Jo Bonner (Ala.) to the panel’s top GOP position.

In addition to Bonner, Republicans reappointed Reps.
Gresham Barrett (S.C.) and John Kline (Minn.) to the panel and added Reps. Mike
Conaway (Texas) and Charlie Dent (Pa.).

Ethics is the only committee that has an equal number of
Democratic and Republican members. It was inactive for the first two weeks of
the new Congress because the panel could not hold votes with so many vacancies.

Pelosi has been under pressure to fill the vacancies or
risk delaying a high-profile investigation into Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y),
who is facing several ethics allegations.

She announced her choice of Lofgren as chairwoman in the
late afternoon on Inauguration Day.

It is still unclear whether Green and the panel’s former
ranking Republican, Rep. Doc Hastings (Wash.), will continue to head the
investigative subcommittee probing Rangel’s activity. Green has said he would
remain to provide continuity to the investigation but would happily disengage
if the panel wants to launch a new investigative subcommittee. That decision is
up to the new chairwoman, who has yet to announce a decision.

The ethics panel expanded its probe into Rangel in late
December after a report in The New York
Times raised questions about a quid pro quo involving a donation to a City
College of New York education center bearing Rangel’s name, and Rangel’s
alleged legislative favoring of the donor.

The probe previously covered Rangel’s failure to report
rental income on a Dominican Republic villa, alleged misuse of his
congressional stationery for fundraising for the education center and his use
of three rent-controlled New York apartments.