While Republicans like Doolittle and Renzi have stepped down from their committee assignments while they are under investigation, Democrat William Jefferson is not being forced by his own party to step down from his remaining committee assignment.

House Democratic leaders are not expected to pressure embattled Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) to forfeit his lone remaining committee assignment, even as two Republican lawmakers who similarly face intense FBI scrutiny have relinquished their posts in recent days.

Democratic sources indicated that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is unlikely to ask the Louisiana lawmaker, who is under federal investigation, to give up his seat on the Small Business Committee.

“Congressman Jefferson was removed from the powerful Ways and Means Committee and that action speaks for itself,” said spokesman Nadeam Elshami.

During the 109th Congress, the Democratic Caucus stripped Jefferson of his seat on the exclusive Ways and Means Committee, a decision later ratified by the House.

The Democratic Steering and Policy Committee subsequently elected not to return Jefferson to that panel earlier this year, although the Louisiana lawmaker did receive an assignment to the Small Business Committee.

One senior Democratic aide, who asked not to be named, noted that it would be difficult to remove Jefferson from that remaining post, citing not only his decisive re-election victory in a December runoff, but the fact that much of the 2nd district was badly damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

Despite enforcing stricter rules for their own Members that call for suspensions if there is a “clear likelihood of serious transgressions,” outlined in a November letter from House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), GOP leaders are not expected to call for Jefferson to follow suit.

Posted by: steve dennis at April 26, 2007 09:29 PM