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Utah's four House Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday that would strip the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service of their power to police federal lands, and give that power over to local cops. Rep. Jason Chaffetz and his three GOP colleagues from Utah introduced the Local Enforcement for Local Lands Act. The lawmakers say the growth of police authorities in both agencies has distracted them from their main mission of managing federal land, and has created conflicts with local authorities. They also say federal agents are not as trusted as local police, and should be removed. "Federal agencies...

Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy met privately with Rep. Jason Chaffetz Wednesday evening to reiterate that he cannot proceed with any investigation that involves Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting. The impetus for the gathering was a POLITICO story where Chaffetz, the chairman, of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was quoted as saying that a pending probe into government record keeping practices would not be "specifically trying to target the secretary, but when she creates her own private email system, she's ensnarled herself.” Presented with the quote before publication, House...

Leading members of Congress are ripping IRS officials for erasing a computer hard drive after a federal judge ordered it to be preserved.“The destruction of evidence subject to preservation orders and subpoenas has been an ongoing problem under your leadership at the IRS,” Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Rep. Jim Jordan , wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen late Thursday.“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said...

Don't know the whereabouts of those kicked out over security. Thousands of people - more than 100,000 in fact - have had their visas revoked since 2001, but that doesn't mean the Obama administration knows where those people are, reports Fox News: The Obama administration cannot be sure of the whereabouts of thousands of foreigners in the U.S. who had their visas revoked over terror concerns and other reasons, a State Department official acknowledged Thursday. The shocking revelation came during a Congressional hearing into the vetting process for immigrants and those seeking visas to enter the United States. "You don't...

Republicans have urged Paul Ryan to step up for House Speaker in an attempt to bring unity to the GOP caucus. He may already be having that effect. After a mid-morning caucus conference, two potential rivals publicly endorsed the Ways and Means chair for the post, including formally declared candidate Jason Chaffetz: Chaffetz, who launched his Speaker bid last weekend, said he’d end his bid if Ryan heeds the call to enter the race.“I’m a huge fan of Paul Ryan. I would support Paul Ryan,” Chaffetz told reporters.“Part of the reason I got into the race was because people...

On Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) discussed the state of the House Speaker’s race in the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) announcement that he was no longer running for the spot, which is soon to be vacated by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH).

The race to replace John Boehner as Speaker of the House just heated up big time.Reports say the House Freedom Caucus will back Congressman Daniel Webster for Speaker.The other candidates for Speaker include House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz.The group recently met with Speaker candidates and came to the conclusion that Webster was the candidate to support in tomorrow’s vote.  A full floor vote will occur later this month.Congressman Curt Clawson, a former basketball standout at Purdue University and Congressman from Southwest Florida, praised Webster in a statement to Conservative Intel.“In basketball and in business it is critical that...

Boehner was the lesser of two evils. But not by much. You had Obama on the one side and Mr. Spray Tan on the other, and the hatred of one did not mean the love of the other. And for five years he failed. Handed the speakership by a pissed-off public, he did nothing with it. He didn't figure out how to handle Obama, he didn't figure out how to handle Reid, he was clueless with Pilosi and rudderless with the Republicans. He could neither command nor cooperate. Nor could he speak. As half the population was left without a...

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz will run for speaker. The Utah Republican announced his decision on Fox News Sunday, citing support from colleagues who “recruited” him to challenge the establishment favorite, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “We don’t want to fight internally,” Chaffetz told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, “but realistically we can’t vote to promote the existing leadership. “Kevin McCarthy’s a good man,” Chaffetz said, “and he’s a reason we have such a solid majority. But things have changed, and there’s really a math problem.” Chaffetz granted that McCarthy may have the majority of votes to...

Speaker John Boehner is considering delaying the internal election for House majority leader and majority whip, leaving only the party vote for speaker to be decided on Thursday, according to multiple Republican sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) is circulating a letter requesting a delay in the elections for the No. 2 and No. 3 slots in leadership. There is also widespread interest in considering a change in internal party rules that would force candidates to resign chairmanships and leadership slots to run for new office.  There is serious unrest in the House Republican...

A Secret Service official’s allegedly deliberate decision to embarrass Rep. Jason Chaffetz could “give pause” to other lawmakers who have applied for federal jobs, cautioned former House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

At Politico, Rachael Blade and John Bresnahan report that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) 82% may enter the race to replace Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) 37% as House Speaker. House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz is planning to run for House speaker, taking on Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) 45% in what appears to be a long-shot bid to lead House Republicans, according to multiple sources. The Utah Republican, first elected to Congress in 2008, is launching a campaign less than a week before the Oct. 8 leadership elections for the House GOP Conference. The date for a floor vote to...

The CW this week is that McCarthy’s Benghazi gaffe was a gift to Hillary Clinton but it’s also a gift to House conservatives who are looking for a foothold in electing Boehner’s successor. You won’t convince the centrists in the caucus that McCarthy’s too squishy to rule but you might convince them that he’s a political liability whom the GOP can’t risk having as a major spokesman during next year’s death match with the Clintons. All tea partiers need to mount a challenge is a candidate. Hensarling won’t do it, Jordan won’t do it, Ryan won’t do it. Jason Chaffetz?...

Thursday on Newsmax TV “The Steve Malzberg Show,” former Gov. George Pataki (R-NY), GOP presidential candidate, discussed the Secret Service’s attempt to find embarrassing information on Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) in retaliation for his congressional investigation and blamed the “anti-American” culture of the Obama administration that uses government power to target citizens, which he said “threatens the freedom of every single American.”

Let’s not shy away from what the Secret Service actually was up to in the matter of its illegal spying on Representative Jason Chaffetz: conspiracy to commit blackmail against a member of Congress. Representative Chaffetz has been investigating the scandal-plagued protective agency — the habitual drunkenness and whoring of its agents, among other things — when Secret Service personnel improperly accessed his protected records in a hunt for dirt. The aim of this was made clear by assistant director Ed Lowery, who wrote to assistant director Faron Paramore: “Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out.” Critics...

Executive Summary The Iranian nuclear deal is a full capitulation to Iran’s terrorist mastermind Mullahs, and the latest in a series of betrayals of the American people and allies by the Obama administration. At the highest level of the administration, Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, prioritized rapprochement with the terror state. Throughout the process and negotiations, she had the backing of billionaire investor (and Obama-backer) George Soros, and his multi-headed network of tax-exempt foundations. Their efforts were driven by deep-rooted anti-Semitism and personal greed. Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s, a small but very connected Iranian lobby (funded, in...

It’s only taken — what — five or six years for the Secret Service to go from one of America’s most trusted and respected security institution to a collection of politicized bureaucratic hacks. Nice work, Obama administration: An assistant director of the Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman ­critical of the service should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday. “Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting...

Retaliation. I guess the Secret Service felt it needed to do more to make itself just like a high school. It’s not enough that agents like to get drunk while on assignment and pick up prostitutes. Now, if anyone investigates their misdeeds, they’re going to get back at the narc by spreading stories about him. Oh, by the way, these are the people who protect the life of the president. That should make you feel warm and cuddly inside. So when Congressman Jason Chaffetz drove an investigation into the misdeeds and failings of the Secret Service, you can bet they...

The Secret Service’s assistant director urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman critical of the service should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday. “Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. “Just to be fair.” Two days later, a news Web site reported that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, had applied to be...

The Secret Service leaked sensitive personal information to the press about Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz as the Utah Republican was investigating the beleaguered agency, an inspector general's report said Wednesday. The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General issued a report on Wednesday that accused Secret Service Assistant Director Edward Lowery and other agency officials of plotting to leak information about Chaffetz, including his unsuccessful attempt to join the organization. The leaks were a highly unusual breach of decorum. Lawmakers often battle with agencies, but the fights mostly stay above board and focus on...