Rangel denies he's giving up tax writing chair

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Charles Rangel is denying that he's stepping down as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

A Democratic source, however, says Rangel is likely to "temporarily" relinquish his chair in wake of an ethic report that admonished him for taking two corporate paid trips.

Rangel told reporters "you bet your life" when asked if we was still chairman. He had just emerged from a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to discuss his fate.

Pelosi had no comment.

The House ethics committee last week said Rangel violated congressional gift rules by taking trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 that had corporate sponsors. The New York Democrat told ethics investigators that he did not know the trips were paid by corporations.

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