GOP battle begins; lawmakers jockey to replace Issa as House Oversight chair

Issa Chaffetz AP Image
AP Image via Deseret News

Some Republican lawmakers are already lining up to become the next chief Obama tormenter, but the current chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee isn’t exactly prepared to give up the leadership role at the end of the year.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa is facing a term limit after having served six years as Oversight Committee chair, but, for the sake of “continuity,” Issa may ask the GOP “leadership to waive Republican rules so he can serve two more years,” Politico reported.

“I’ve made no bones about it: I would certainly think that I might be an appropriate candidate for just two more years to finish up, with continuity, the Obama administration,” Issa, who has led the Congressional hearings from Fast and Furious to Benghazi to the IRS scandal, said.

“The steering committee needs to pick the best person for the last two years,” he continued. “No one can chair a committee forever. So whether I leave at the end of this term or two years later is a steering committee decision. But in either case, I do have a number of really great, hard-working subcommittee chairmen, and I do have confidence that any one of them could oversee the committee.”

The “steering committee” – made up of Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and a “small group of leadership allies” – makes the decision on House committee chairmanships, the article said, but many eyes within the GOP seem to be looking toward Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz to take the gavel from Issa.

“I put my flag in the ground early; I’m not trying to be coy,” Chaffetz said, according to Politico. “I’m being direct that I fully intend to put my name in to be the next chairman of the Oversight Committee. It’s something I’ve wanted to do before I even got to Congress. The Oversight Committee has been my No. 1 choice every single term.”

U.S. Rep. John Mica from Florida and Ohio Reps. Jim Jordan and Mike Turner have also expressed interest in leading the Oversight Committee, the article said, but “Republican insiders say Mica doesn’t have a chance [and] Jordan and Turner are also long shots.”

“The contest is shaping up to be one of the most intense power struggles in the House, and the result will have major implications,” Politico reported. “The job will immediately transform the winner into a national force as President Barack Obama’s chief tormentor in Congress, wielding huge influence — and subpoena power — over the last two years of his administration.”

Also see: Rick Perry shaken up by Obama’s disturbing threat to governors in meeting

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