Ethics Questions Raised for Congressman and Senators Who Stayed at C Street House

[BurtWorm]

The Caucus - The Politics and Government blog of The New York Times
April 1, 2010, 12:58 pm

By ERIC LIPTON


By just about any standard, it is an unusually good deal: accommodations for just $950 a month in a spacious Capitol Hill town house that operates like a bed-and-breakfast, with housekeeping and laundry included.

For eight members of Congress who since 2003 have reportedly taken advantage of the offer extended by a religious-affiliated group that runs the so-called C Street house, it may turn out to be deal they will regret.

A group of Ohio ministers and an ethics watchdog group here have separately asked federal investigators to examine if these four House members and four Senators received what amounts to illegal gifts.

Tenants at the C Street house, which is affiliated with the secretive religious group known as the Fellowship, have included both Democrats and Republicans. But in the last year the red-brick townhouse became best known as the one-time home of Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, who lived in there while he was involved in an affair with the wife of one of his senior aides.

The other current or former residents cited in the letters written to the Internal Revenue Service and the House and Senate ethics committees are Senators Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas; Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma; Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina; and Representatives Mike Doyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania; Heath Shuler, Democrat of North Carolina, and Zach Wamp, Republican of Tennessee.

...

Leaders of the Foundation — a group that sponsors the annual National Prayer Breakfast — uses the house to meet with members of Congress and introduce them to followers of their causes.

Members of Congress who lived in the C Street house might be liable for unpaid income taxes, if the Internal Revenue Service ruled that they did not pay a fair market value for their rent, Mr. Owens argues in his letter. They might also have violated a rule that prohibits members of Congress from accepting significant gifts, says a letter sent on Thursday to the House and Senate ethics committee by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.


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[karynnj]

1. I am amazed that is finally getting main stream attention

I hope it leads to investigations before the Senate and House ethics committees.

[Bitwit1234]

2. BUT when Charlie Rangel got an apartment for only 600 in NY

the republicans peed their pants and added that item to an ethics charge. BUT they are just pooh poohing the republicans deal.

[GreenTea]

3. Shit, about time!!

[Initech]

4. Um..... what separation of church and state again?