Ethics Complaint

[Cliff]

http://www.alternet.org/news/146285/ethics_complaint_leveled_at_right-wing_congressional_members_of_shadowy_christian_group
"Ethics Complaint Leveled at Right-Wing Congressional Members of Shadowy
Christian Group"

[
A group of congressmen and senators living in a posh townhouse on Capitol Hill
owned by the notorious Family may now have to answer to ethics committees for
low rent.

A group of congressmen and senators living in a posh townhouse on Capitol Hill
may now have to answer to the ethics committees in their respective chambers,
thanks to letters of complaint filed by the watchdog group, Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. At issue is the modest rent paid by the
conservative male lawmakers -- who hail from both political parties -- to live
in the house owned by The Family, the shadowy, right-wing religious group that
sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast and shores up the work of dictators
throughout the developing world.
....
Named in the complaint to the Senate committee (PDF) are Senators Tom Coburn,
R-Okla.; John Ensign, R-Nev.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Sam Brownback, R-Kans.
CREW's letter to the House committee (PDF) names as recipients of a probable
"gift" of a rent subsidy Representatives Bart Stupak, D-Ohio; Zach Wamp,
R-Tenn.; Mike Doyle, D-Penn., and Heath Shuler, D-N.C. (Coburn, Ensign and
DeMint are among the group of Family members AlterNet investigated when
examining Republican opposition to health-care reform.)

CREW alleges that the lawmakers pay below-market rent for their rooms in the
restored 19th-century property, receiving lodging and housekeeping for $950
month in a neighborhood where a one-room efficiency apartment can go for as much
as $1,700. Essentially, the CREW complaints say that the rents are being
subsidized by the entity that owns the house, and that subsidy, according to
ethics rules, amounts to the sort of "gift" that is banned under ethics rules,
according to CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan.
....
In a related story, ClergyVOICE, a group of Protestant religious leaders called
on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax implications of accepting
a subsidized rent. Earlier this year, the C Street house had its tax-exempt
status revoked: its owners had claimed the house to be a church, and thereby
exempt from paying property taxes.
.....
]

[Chief Egalitarian]

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[PrecisionmachinisT]

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