“I can’t think of one piece of legislation that impacts them, and there has never been a time that they’ve raised any legislation to me,” the paper quoted Mr. Rangel as saying. Indeed, in Mr. Rangel’s formal submission to the House ethics committee, asking it to review his use of Congressional stationery in soliciting money for the school, he wrote, “So far as I am aware, none of those whom I wrote had any pending requests into my office, lobbied me regarding any legislation before my committee, or asked me for assistance on legislation in which they had a special interest.”

Mr. Rangel, who had opposed the tax change A.I.G. was seeking  part of a much bigger piece of legislation  ultimately allowed it to be added to a bill he sponsored. Mr. Rangel’s aides, and fellow Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, say that he agreed to the bill only after being persuaded by other members of Congress that it would help an array of American companies weather the economic uncertainty.

After Mr. Rangel’s office was asked in recent days about the letter from A.I.G., Janice Mays, counsel to the Ways and Means Committee, said a search of the committee’s records had not turned up a copy of it. But she said Mr. Rangel had already changed his mind about the tax provision before A.I.G. says it sent him the letter.

Federal statutes and House ethics rules forbid members of Congress from asking for anything of value from a person or company with business before them.

Ms. Mays said those rules did not prohibit members of Congress from raising money for nonprofit organizations, even from people or companies with interests before the government. And she said Mr. Rangel’s representation to the ethics committee last summer concerned only those instances in which he had written to potential donors on Congressional stationery, not those he might have met with personally in seeking donations.