Two Republican lawmakers are urging a congressional investigation into whether House members and staff received favorable treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp. in violation of House rules.

Allegations in Conde Nast Publications’ Portfolio magazine that lawmakers and other prominent people received preferential mortgage terms from the lender must be examined, said Representatives Darrell Issa of California and Mark Souder of Indiana.

The Senate Ethics Committee has begun looking into whether Senators Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, and Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut who oversees the U.S. mortgage industry as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, received loans through Countrywide’s VIP program, which waived points, fees and borrowing rules for prominent people, Portfolio said in June.

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