Praising his “deep commitment to transparency and accountability,” House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday the Republican Steering Committee recommended Representative Trey Gowdy to be the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Gowdy, who is a former federal prosecutor, is known for chairing the House Benghazi investigation and has also been a leading member of the Intelligence Committee’s probe into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
Hence, if confirmed by the full Republican Conference, Gowdy would replace outgoing Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz who is set to resign at the end of of the month.
House GOP leaders encouraged Gowdy to run upon learning of Chaffetz’s departure. He is a close ally of Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on a panel composed of unpredictable Freedom Caucus conservatives with rocky relationships with leadership.
“Trey Gowdy possesses the experience and deep commitment to transparency and accountability necessary to be the House’s next Oversight chairman. He has proven that he will always look out for taxpayers and seek answers from the bureaucracy”, Speaker Ryan said in a statement.
It remains unclear in what direction Gowdy will take his panel‘s part of the Trump-Comey investigation, which has quickly become one of the most contentious political scandals in modern American history.
The House and Senate intelligence committees have jurisdiction over Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election.
However, questions of obstruction and how Trump might have tried to influence the probe fall more into Oversight’s purview, at least in the House, Politico comments.
Gowdy is concidered a top-notch independent investigator among Republicans and at least one White House aide has worried that he could become a “problem” in Trump’s side.
According to Politico, Gowdy has made a conscious effort to shield himself from an appearance of being too closely tied to the White House: When the Trump-supporting Great America PAC donated $5,000 into Gowdy’s campaign account in March, he returned the donation.
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