Rangel Denies Rift With Pelosi Over Trade Policy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem isn’t a fan of recent reports that he and the House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, are battling over trade policy.
“Nancy Pelosi and I are joined at the hip,” Mr. Rangel, who is the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, told The New York Sun yesterday in a telephone interview.
The chairman, who is also dean of the New York congressional delegation, was rebutting a report by syndicated conservative columnist Robert Novak that he and the speaker are embroiled in a “tense internal confrontation” over an international trade bill he is negotiating with Republicans and the White House.
Mr. Rangel said Ms. Pelosi had encouraged the bipartisan approach he has taken as chairman and that disagreements over language were holding up a deal. Unions and some Democrats are seeking stronger labor end environmental provisions, which the Bush administration is resisting.
“Where we have problems, Nancy is not a part of it,” he said. The speaker’s office also denied reports of a rift in a statement to the Sun on Sunday.
The chairman said he was keeping the speaker in the loop — to a point. “I keep her updated, but I don’t report to her,” he said.
He reported no progress in the talks over the weekend and said there was no specific timetable for a deal. “I thought the administration was anxious to wrap this up by April,” he said.
