A House Ethics subcommittee voted Tuesday to extend its investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for her ties to a Boston bank that received a government bailout during the financial crisis.
The minority-owned OneUnited Bank got a $12 million capital injection from the Treasury Department on Dec. 19, 2008, as part of the $700 billion bailout Congress authorized at the peak of the credit crisis last fall. Waters, who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, later acknowledged that she placed a call to the agency lobbying for OneUnited's rescue, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal revealed that Waters had previously held a financial stake in OneUnited, and that her husband had served as a director on the bank's board.
The ethics committee said it was extending its investigation into Waters' ties to OneUnited by 45 days, but offered no details on the nature of the inquiry or the reasons for extending it. The matter was originally referred to the committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics. The ethics office had no comment and the committee did not respond to requests for more information.
A spokesman for Waters said the congresswoman had no new comment, but referred reporters to a March 13 statement in which she denied any wrongdoing in the case of OneUnited.
