Privately Financed University Endowments Honoring Lawmakers Create Potential Conflicts of Interest

Several companies with business before Congress have partially financed university endowments honoring nearly a dozen current and former federal lawmakers, creating potential conflicts of interest, The New York Times reported. The conflicts are similar to the one that U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, has been accused of in an ethics complaint. However The Times reported that “none of the dozen lawmakers appear to have linked their office to the endowments as closely as Mr. Rangel … is accused of doing.”