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Washington • Rep. Jason Chaffetz submitted his formal resignation letter Friday morning to House Speaker Paul Ryan shortly before meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.
Chaffetz, who had signaled in a letter last month to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert his "intent to resign," will officially leave his post at 8 a.m. June 30, the letter to Ryan says.
"It has been a tremendous honor and privilege to serve the people of Utah as a member of Congress," Chaffetz wrote.
The Utah Republican, elected in November to a fifth term, says he's leaving early to spend more time with his family and has also griped about the lack of forthcoming information from the Trump administration. As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee until last week, Chaffetz had initiated scores of document requests from various agencies and was miffed at the lack of transparency that he thought he would see with a Republican in the White House.
"The reality is, sadly, I don't see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration," Chaffetz said last weekend on the syndicated show "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson."
"I thought there would be this, these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon. In many ways, it's almost worse because we're getting nothing, and that's terribly frustrating."
Chaffetz, joined by his family, paid a courtesy call to the White House on Friday morning to visit with the president, Chaffetz's office said.