Posted by The House ethics committee is investigating whether five Democratic lawmakers, including two committee chairmen, received improper gifts in traveling to Caribbean conferences in 2007 and 2008.
The committee said it was investigating Charles B. Rangel of New York, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee; Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan; Donald M. Payne of New Jersey; Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee; and Donna M. Christensen, the delegate from the Virgin Islands.
The annual Multinational Business Conference on Caribbean affairs is held in a different country each year, and it is officially sponsored by the Carib News Foundation. The Carib News is a small Caribbean newspaper based in New York City.
The lawmakers under scrutiny said the Committee on Standards of Conduct — the ethics committee’s full name — approved the travel in advance, as required by House rules.
