Report: Rep. Waters faces ethics charge

WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- Sources say Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is facing an ethics-violation charge over her efforts on behalf of a minority bank, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Waters, who has held elected office for three decades, is the second high-profile African-American House member to be dinged with alleged ethics violations in recent days.

The findings were presented by the Office of Congressional Ethics on Friday to Waters, who has indicated she would fight the allegations, sources told the Times.

The newspaper said Saturday that Waters came under scrutiny last year over federal bailout funds received by OneUnited Bank, a minority-owned institution. Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, owned stock in the bank and had been on its board of directors.

Waters was accused of setting up a meeting between bank representatives and federal regulators while she was on the committee that oversees banking.

Waters has said she fully disclosed Williams' ties to OneUnited and has been a longtime advocate for minority owned businesses and for lenders in minority communities.

Meanwhile, a congressional panel has accepted a recommendation that a reprimand be issued against another black member of Congress, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Among other things, Rangel is accused of soliciting donations to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York from businesses appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee when he was its chairman; using a rent-controlled apartment in Harlem for his campaign office; failing to include more than $600,000 on his financial disclosure report; and failing to pay taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.