Former New York Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel, who had served in in the House of Representatives for over four decades, is dead at 94.
Rangel represented Harlem in Congress from 1971 until his retirement in 2017.
He was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African American member of Congress to lead the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
His family confirmed his death at a New York hospital in a statement provided by the City College of New York, with which he was closely affiliated.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) released a statement on Rangel, calling him “a patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice,” and his “friend and mentor.”
Born and raised in Harlem in 1930, Rangel was a high school dropout who later served int the Korean War, where he earned a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
He went on to college on the G.I. Bill, earning degrees from New York University and St. John’s University Law School.
After serving in the New York State Assembly and working as an assistant U.S. attorney, Rangel was first elected to Congress in 1970 by beating long-time incumbent Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in a Democratic primary.
Powell had faced serious ethics allegations that once led him to be temporary booted from his seat in Congress in 1967, until the U.S. Supreme Court restored him to office in 1969.
Over the course of his career in the House, the late congressman sponsored 40 bills and resolutions that were passed into law.
One of the House’s most effective legislators, Rangel was a primary sponsor of the national Empowerment Zone program, the Affordable Care Act, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, and the 1987 “Rangel Amendment,” which put strict business sanctions on South Africa over apartheid.
Rangel fought hard for his Harlem constituents and sponsored empowerment zones with tax credits for businesses moving into economically depressed areas of his district and encouraged development of low income housing.
In 2006, Rangel became the leader of the Ways and Means Committee, which has financial jurisdiction over programs including Social Security and Medicare, after Democrats ended 12 years of Republican control of the House.
However, he was forced to step down from his committee in 2010, after a House ethics committee held a hearing on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct against him over issues surrounding financial disclosures and use of Congressional resources.
It was discovered that he had failed to pay taxes on a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic, filed misleading financial disclosure forms, and improperly solicited donations for a college center in New York from corporations with business before his committee.
Rangel was eventually convicted in the House of 11 out the 13 ethics violations.
Unlike his predecessor, Rangel’s colleagues followed the ethics committee’s recommendation that the long serving member face censure and not expulsion from the chamber.
Despite being censured over ethics violations, Rangel continued to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2017.
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) said that Rangel “was not only a great chairman but an even better man.”
Former secretary of State and former Democrat senator from New York Hillary Clinton credited Rangel for urging her to run for the Senate.
“I’ll miss Charlie Rangel, a beloved icon and public servant of New York. He was a proud veteran who loved serving his Harlem constituents. He urged me to run for the Senate and later was an invaluable colleague. Rest in peace and power, my friend,” Clinton wrote in a tweet.
In a separate tweet, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described Rangel as “a great man, a great friend, and someone who never stopped fighting for his constituents and the best of America.”
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, also described Rangel as his “friend” and “mentor” who taught him “that leadership is about lifting others up and in the face of injustice, you don’t flinch, you don’t fold—you fight.”
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