Rangel’s Support for Tax Break Questioned

Republican lawmakers called on the House ethics committee on Tuesday to investigate Representative Charles B. Rangel’s efforts to preserve a tax loophole for an oil-drilling company at the same time that its chief executive pledged $1 million to a City College of New York school that will bear the congressman’s name.

And Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said that he would renew his effort to close the loophole, which has allowed Nabors Industries to save an estimated tens of millions of dollars a year in federal taxes since 2002 by opening a small office in Bermuda and declaring itself a foreign corporation.

Read more: (David Kocieniewski, “Republicans Question Rangel’s Tax Break Support,” The New York Times, 11/26/08)