South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy resigned his membership on the House Committee on Ethics to concentrate on his other legislative duties.

Gowdy, a Republican, tendered his resignation Jan. 11 from the powerful ethics committee. His new position as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee prompted the resignation, according to a letter Gowdy sent to House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Ryan.

“Accordingly, I tender my resignation from the House Ethics Committee pending your designation of a replacement,” he told the Wisconsin Republican. “Thank you again for this opportunity and thank you to my colleagues on the Committee for their hard work and friendship.”

Gowdy was aware that being elected in June of last year to the House Oversight Committee, which is responsible for investigating congressional affairs, required him to cut loose one of the other committees in which he’s involved.

“When I became Chairperson of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform I knew I would not be able to keep all other committee assignments to include Judiciary, Intelligence and Ethics. Four committee assignments, including a Chairmanship, is a challenging workload,” he added. Gowdy is the first congressman to serve on four committees simultaneously.

“It is unprecedented for any member of Congress to simultaneously serve on four committees,” Amanda Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Gowdy told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “When Rep. Gowdy was named Chairman of the Oversight Committee, he asked House leadership to be taken off one of his Committees, and was finally granted that request last week.”

His tenure in Congress has included controversy. Gowdy, who was elected during the Tea Party wave of 2010, used $150,000 in taxpayer dollars to settle with a former aide who alleged he was fired for not focusing his investigative work on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a report last year from The Washington Post.

A list of settlements the Office of Compliance released in December 2017 confirmed the confidential settlement reached between Gowdy’s office and Bradley Podliska, a military veteran who also alleged his supervisors acted against him after he left to fulfill his obligations as an Air Force reservist. Gowdy has stated that he does not personally know Podliska.

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This post has been updated to include comment from Gowdy’s office.

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