In his first term, as a member of the Gang of Seven, a group of first-term Republican Representatives, Taylor worked to expose the 1992 House banking scandal.

[1] In 2006, Taylor's Democratic opponent was Heath Shuler, a native of Swain County and a former quarterback for the University of Tennessee and the Washington Redskins.

[citation needed] Taylor served on the advisory board of the National Wilderness Institute, a "deceptively named" pro-timber group which worked to promote timber companies' private property rights and reduce environmental safeguards.

[3] In 2005 and 2006, Taylor made national headlines for delaying full funding by the federal government for a $60 million memorial to United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

[4] Taylor supported spending over $600 million for a road through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to settle a 1943 agreement with the federal government.

[5][6] Taylor started exchange programs for Russian students and internships for aspiring bankers and entrepreneurs in 1994, at colleges in his district.

[7] In 2005, Taylor secured $100,000 in federal money for the International Trade and Small Business Institute, which brings foreign students to the U.S. to study at seven colleges and universities in western North Carolina.

[11] In July 2005, at a town hall meeting in his district, when asked about the Iraq War, Taylor mentioned the terrorist bombings in London that occurred the prior week and said "Just like any murderer, they have to be dealt with and justice has to be brought."

According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, Taylor was worth more than $55 million as of the end of 2005, making him one of the wealthiest members of Congress.

[13] Taylor founded and remains majority owner/chairman of the board of Blue Ridge Savings Bank in Asheville, NC.

In 2006, he reported owning stock in Financial Guaranty Corporation, the holding company for the bank, that was worth more than $50 million.

Congressional staff routinely said the fraud was bank business and referred questions to Blue Ridge President Dwayne Wiseman.

[19] Starting in the mid-1990s, Charles Taylor began financing small businesses in and around Ivanovo, an industrial city of almost 500,000, about 150 miles (240 km) northeast of Moscow.

[8] One of the 2005 participants in the Russian student exchange program told Associated Press that she had a summer work-study internship at the Bank of Ivanovo after she returned to Russia.

[22] In May 2006, Champion Cattle and Tree Farm, located in Transylvania County, was issued a notice of violation because rental property of the company had become a "public health nuisance.