The GOP Steering Committee has selected Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) to head the House Oversight Committee, replacing Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), who is giving up his Congressional seat.
“I am grateful to the Steering Committee and the Conference as a whole for this opportunity to serve,” Gowdy said in a statement. “I look forward to working alongside the other Committee members, as well as any member of Congress, as we discharge the jurisdiction assigned to us.”
“The former prosecutor is best known for his role leading the House select committee that investigated the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi,” the Hill reported, noting that Gowdy led the panel for nearly two years. “The Benghazi panel played a key role in helping uncover that Hillary Clinton used a private email server while Secretary of State.”
In his new role, Gowdy is responsible for oversight of the Trump administration.
The House GOP conference is expected to ratify the Steering Committee’s selection as early as next week, which would install Gowdy as the new chairman immediately.
Gowdy, who was elected to Congress in 2010, takes the influential gavel even as he in only eighth in seniority on the committee.
In a letter to his constituents, Chaffetz wrote about his departure at the end of this month, “My life has undergone some big changes over the last 18 months,” Chaffetz said. “Those changes have been good.”
“But as I celebrated my 50th birthday in March, the reality of spending more than 1,500 nights away from my family over eight years hit me harder than it had before,” Chaffetz wrote.
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