Gowdy might lead oversight committee
Compromise choice for chair may appease far-right Republicans
S.C. lawmaker could replace Chaffetz
Republicans are about to give one of the top committee posts in the House to a guy who has never said he wants the job: South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy.
Gowdy is expected to be chosen this week to take over the chairmanship of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, despite the fact he has not said he is running for the position.
The Republican Steering Committee — which is made up of Republican leadership and other representatives — will meet this week to choose a replacement for Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who has announced he will retire from Congress on June 30.
Gowdy represents an attempt at compromise. The upstart conservative Freedom Caucus wanted one of their own for the job, but the group has been a thorn in the side of party leadership and nearly killed Speaker Paul Ryan’s Affordable Care Act repeal bill.
Gowdy is closely aligned with Republican leadership, but he has also earned the respect of members of the GOP’s far right. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, a Freedom Caucus member, said Gowdy “is tried, tested and exactly what the committee needs at this time.”
This isn’t the first time Gowdy has been put up for a position he didn’t seek. Gowdy chaired the special committee to investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi in 2012 and recently was named a top Republican in the House Intelligence Committee’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
In addition to Oversight and Intelligence, Gowdy sits on the Judiciary Committee, which puts him on the House committees investigating Russian meddling in the presidential election. His name recently was on the short list to replace former FBI Director James Comey, whose firing last month is already a key element of the probe.
Despite Gowdy’s credentials, some conservative members of the committee are frustrated with what they feel has been an unfair selection process, even if they think Gowdy will do a good job.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R- Ohio, is more senior on the committee than Gowdy is and had previously signaled his interest in the chairmanship. Jordan is a co-founder of the Freedom Caucus and the Oversight Committee has more than a half-dozen members who belong to the group. But questions were raised about whether Ryan, R-Wis., would allow a flamethrower to get such a powerful position and Jordan ultimately said he wasn’t going to run.
Darin Miller, a spokesman for Jordan, told USA TODAY that despite Jordan’s qualifications “the steering committee isn’t going to pick someone like Rep. Jordan who has demonstrated his willingness to stand up to leaders in both political parties.”
“I think that Jim is an eminently qualified guy,” said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who is also on the Oversight Committee and a member of the Freedom Caucus. “But (Jordan’s) analysis was ‘this is a closed case, this is already decided and I don’t want to get in a race that I have no shot of winning.’ ”
Sanford had also been interested in the post. After Jordan declined to run, Sanford also concluded it was a lost cause.
Gowdy “is tried, tested and exactly what the committee needs at this time.” Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and a Freedom Caucus member