The feisty chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee won’t be without a gavel, even though term limits will end his tenure this year.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., announced Thursday he will be chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on intellectual property in the 114th Congress.
“As subcommittee chairman, my priorities include advancing a strong bipartisan bill to address abusive patent practices by ‘patent trolls’ which harm our economy’s real innovators and continuing needed oversight of the Patent & Trademark Office to ensure it is best prepared to address challenges for the 21st century,” Issa said Thursday.
It’s a potentially perfect fit for Issa, who holds dozens of patents (framed in his Capitol Hill office) and he still dabbles in electronic design.
One of Issa’s more famous creations was the Viper car alarm system, which features his voice warning “Protected by Viper. Stand back.”
Issa also built a reputation for aggressive oversight of the Obama administration while at the helm of House Oversight. His hearings often featured tough exchanges with administration officials, including U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and various administrators from the Internal Revenue Service.
He frequently tangled with the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., whose microphone he once turned off mid-speech, prompting a political backlash.
Issa said he will resume his spot on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which he had to abandon when he became Oversight chairman.
