62 Facts About Jason Chaffetz

Jason E Chaffetz is an American retired politician who served as the US representative for from 2009 until his resignation in 2017.

Jason Chaffetz chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2015 until 2017.

Jason Chaffetz rescinded his endorsement of Donald Trump in early October 2016 but expressed his intent to vote for him three weeks later.

Jason Chaffetz resigned from office in 2017, six months into his fifth Congressional term, and has since been a commentator, Fox News contributor, and author.

Jason Chaffetz was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in California, Arizona, and Colorado.

Jason Chaffetz's father, John A Chaffetz, was a businessman, and his mother, Margaret "Peggy" A Wood, was a Christian Scientist who later became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ran a photography business.

Jason Chaffetz's father was Jewish, and his paternal grandfather Maxwell Jason Chaffetz, the son of immigrants from Russia, was an FBI Special Agent.

Max Chaffetz was the brother of Hammond E Chaffetz, who pioneered federal antitrust prosecution policies later upheld by the US Supreme Court in United States v Socony-Vacuum Oil Co.

Jason Chaffetz attended high school in California as well as Middle Park High School in Granby, Colorado, followed by Brigham Young University on an athletic scholarship, and was the starting placekicker on the Brigham Young University football team in 1988 and 1989.

Over two seasons, Jason Chaffetz converted 16 of 25 field goal attempts and 89 of 94 point-after attempts.

Jason Chaffetz became a Republican after meeting Ronald Reagan in 1990, when Reagan visited Jason Chaffetz's employer, Nu Skin, as a motivational speaker.

In 2003, Jason Chaffetz applied to be an agent in the United States Secret Service but was not accepted because "better qualified applicants existed".

In 2004, Jason Chaffetz was the campaign manager for Utah gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman.

Huntsman won the race, and when he took office in January 2005, Jason Chaffetz became Huntsman's chief of staff.

In 2006, Jason Chaffetz was appointed by Huntsman as a trustee for Utah Valley State College.

Jason Chaffetz has served as a member of the Highland City planning commission and as chairman for the Utah National Guard adjutant general review.

On January 1,2007, before the 110th Congress was sworn in, Jason Chaffetz announced that he was "testing the waters" for a Congressional run against six-term incumbent Chris Cannon, for the Republican nomination in the 3rd District.

Nine months later, on October 1,2007, Jason Chaffetz formally entered the race for the Republican nomination.

Jason Chaffetz would have no paid staff, no campaign office, no free meals for delegates, no campaign debt and no polling.

Jason Chaffetz said that Cannon "has failed us for not instituting conservative principles", consistently calling for a return to the core conservative principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, accountability and a strong national defense.

Jason Chaffetz campaigned on stronger measures to fix legal immigration and remove the incentives for illegal immigration, an issue he continued to press throughout the campaign.

Jason Chaffetz faced Democrat Bennion Spencer in the 2008 general election, along with Jim Noorlander of the Constitution Party.

Jason Chaffetz announced at the start of the congressional term, in 2009, that he would be sleeping on a cot in his office, rather than renting a Washington, DC, apartment.

Jason Chaffetz appeared on the "Better Know A District" segment of The Colbert Report on January 6,2009, where he was defeated by Stephen Colbert in leg wrestling.

Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has delivered as advertised for Utah's 3rd District.

In early 2012 Jason Chaffetz worked as a representative of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign during primary season, shadowing the campaign of rival Republican candidate Newt Gingrich to offer rebuttals to reporters following Gingrich speeches.

Jason Chaffetz refused to endorse Haitian-American candidate Mia Love, who ran against incumbent 2nd District congressman Jim Matheson, for the newly created 4th District seat.

The campaign was a "low-key" race in which Jason Chaffetz was heavily favored.

In November 2014, Jason Chaffetz won a four-way race to become the chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Jason Chaffetz was only the fifth Member of Congress in 89 years to become a full chairman after just three terms.

Jason Chaffetz faced protests and jeering at a town hall meeting in February 2017.

Jason Chaffetz took a three-week leave of absence from Congress to recuperate from foot surgery.

On July 1,2017, the day following his official resignation from Congress, Jason Chaffetz became a contributor to Fox News.

Jason Chaffetz was a 2017 visiting fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Jason Chaffetz is the author of several books published since leaving office.

Jason Chaffetz has repeatedly voted in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

In March 2017 Jason Chaffetz drew criticism for and later walked back on a statement comparing the cost of healthcare coverage to the cost of purchasing an iPhone.

Jason Chaffetz described Obama's attempts to introduce an inheritance tax on value over $5 million as "one of the most immoral things you can do".

In February 2015, Jason Chaffetz threatened Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser with possible jail time if she implemented Initiative 71.

In 2017, Jason Chaffetz stated that he planned to seek a congressional vote to overturn DC legislation allowing terminally ill individuals to end their life.

Local organizations decried Jason Chaffetz's move, and District political leaders considered it an attack on the principle of District of Columbia home rule.

Jason Chaffetz led the charge in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the District of Columbia's legalization of same-sex marriage in 2009.

Jason Chaffetz has expressed his support for "an all-of-the-above energy strategy".

Jason Chaffetz has opposed federal protection for Utah's resident greater-sage grouse, a bird whose population has shrunk from 16 million 100 years ago to about 200,000 today.

Jason Chaffetz criticized the surge of 30,000 troops President Obama authorized for the war in Afghanistan, saying that the United States does not have a clear policy or exit strategy.

Jason Chaffetz has been vocal against the White House and State Department's handling of the September 11,2012 attacks on the US Consulate compound in Benghazi.

Jason Chaffetz has been criticized for politicizing the Benghazi incident, acknowledging in an interview with CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien that he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security" and that House Republicans had consciously voted to reduce the funds allocated to the State Department for embassy security since winning the majority in 2010.

In December 2009, Jason Chaffetz championed legislation to limit the use of full-body imaging scanners at airports unless a metal detector first indicated a need for more screening.

In 2014 and 2015, Jason Chaffetz headed congressional hearings into United States Secret Service security failures in response to incidents at the time including a White House fence jumper, a CDC security guard being armed while riding an elevator with President Barack Obama, and agents crashing a car into a White House barricade.

In November 2009, Jason Chaffetz co-sponsored a bill in the House with Rep.

Jason Chaffetz has voted in favor of eliminating federal funding for National Public Radio.

Jason Chaffetz opposes net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers should not be allowed to discriminate or charge differentially by user, content, website or platform.

In January 2010, Jason Chaffetz was called upon to question Barack Obama when the president spoke to the House Republican Conference retreat in Baltimore.

Jason Chaffetz applauded Obama for some of the promises made during the campaign, but asked why promises to broadcast healthcare debates on C-SPAN, keep lobbyists out of senior positions, go line-by-line through the health care bill and end earmarks had not been kept.

Jason Chaffetz said that "it's taking care of itself" and that any investigation into Flynn was for the House Intelligence Committee to conduct; Jason Chaffetz asked the Justice Department inspector general to investigate the leaks that brought Flynn's contacts with Russian officials to public light.

Some commentators criticized Jason Chaffetz's perceived lack of interest in Trump administration oversight, especially in light of Jason Chaffetz's zealous investigation of items such as the CDC's use of the Sid the Science Kid cartoon character as part of an anti-Zika virus campaign and a December 2016 tweet from Bryce Canyon National Park welcoming the designation of a new national monument.

Jason Chaffetz has attacked those who have brought attention to Trump's conflicts of interest.

In January 2017, Jason Chaffetz threatened to investigate the independent Office of Government Ethics after the Office had questioned Trump's commitment to resolve conflicts of interest.

Jason Chaffetz said in January 2017 that he would continue his investigations into Hillary Clinton.

In October 2016, when Clinton seemed likely to become the next President, Jason Chaffetz said that he was already preparing for "years" of investigations of Clinton.

In November 2011, Jason Chaffetz announced a seven-point Social Security proposal.

In 2013, Jason Chaffetz voted against re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act.