--- title: Jason Chaffetz: Leaving Congress to 'Get Off Crazy Train' description: Republican Rep.Jason Chaffetz is leaving his position in Congress at the end of June. He told Fox News he will "'get off the crazy train" canonical: https://time.com/4838792/jason-chaffetz-fox-news-congress/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-29T12:54:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:22:48.570Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jason Chaffetz Says He's Quitting Congress to 'Get Off the Crazy Train' og:description: The Utah rep. is joining Fox News as a contributor og:url: https://time.com/4838792/jason-chaffetz-fox-news-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb660e36e2443dc64/6988d3e9cf40a82968c485b6/jason-chaffetz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: House Republicans Vote To Pick Their Party's Nominee For Speaker og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jason Chaffetz Says He's Quitting Congress to 'Get Off the Crazy Train' twitter:description: The Utah rep. is joining Fox News as a contributor twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb660e36e2443dc64/6988d3e9cf40a82968c485b6/jason-chaffetz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jason Chaffetz Says He's Quitting Congress to 'Get Off the Crazy Train' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 29, 2017 12:54 PM UTC  Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, walks out of a closed House Republican election meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, walks out of a closed House Republican election meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 29, 2017 12:54 PM UTC Just days out from his departure from Congress, Republican Rep. [Jason Chaffetz](http://time.com/4789589/jason-chaffetz-james-comey-hearing-postponed/) said he’s leaving to “get off the crazy train” in an interview with [Fox News](http://time.com/4784104/roger-ailes-richard-nixon/) Wednesday evening. Chaffetz, who also served as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is vacating his position at the end of June and recently [secured a contract](http://time.com/4837408/jason-chaffetz-republican-fox-news-utah-house-oversight-committee/) to serve as an on-air contributor with Fox News. “I said I would get in, serve and get out,” Chaffetz said on Fox News. “Fifteen hundred nights I’ve spent away from my family, and there comes a point where you got to get more balance in your life.” The outgoing representative from Utah [recently said](http://time.com/money/4835044/jason-chaffetz-congress-housing/) American taxpayers should provide a $30,000 housing stipend to the 535 members of Congress so they can afford real estate in Washington, D.C. (Chaffetz is no stranger to controversial comments: In March, he [told CNN](https://twitter.com/NewDay/status/839088737242005506) Americans should forego purchasing an iPhone in order to invest in their health care.) He told Fox News his decision to leave Congress was “partly” due to financial reasons. “Faced with another 100 to 200 nights a year where my wife’s by herself in Utah and I’m on a cot in Washington D.C. — as nice as the salary is, I can’t afford to have two places and have a quality of life that I’d like to have,” Chaffetz said. “You’ve got dozens and dozens of us that can’t afford two mortgages, kids in college and other types of things.” Chaffetz is resigning during his fifth Congressional term. While chairman of the Oversight committee, he led the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4838792/jason-chaffetz-fox-news-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4838792/jason-chaffetz-fox-news-congress/"},"headline":"Jason Chaffetz Says He's Quitting Congress to 'Get Off the Crazy Train'","datePublished":"2017-06-29T12:54:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:22:48.570Z","description":"The Utah rep. is joining Fox News as a contributor","url":"https://time.com/4838792/jason-chaffetz-fox-news-congress/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb660e36e2443dc64/6988d3e9cf40a82968c485b6/jason-chaffetz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb660e36e2443dc64/6988d3e9cf40a82968c485b6/jason-chaffetz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Republicans Vote To Pick Their Party's Nominee For Speaker","caption":"House Republicans Vote To Pick Their Party's Nominee For Speaker","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4838792/jason-chaffetz-fox-news-congress/","name":"Jason Chaffetz Says He's Quitting Congress to 'Get Off the Crazy Train'"}}]}] ```