House Natural Resources chairman pledges to retire after next term

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) intends to retire after his next term in office, he told constituents last week.

At a town hall event in Layton, Utah, on Friday, Bishop said he won’t run for reelection to the House in 2020, assuming he wins reelection next year to the House seat he’s held since 2003, according to the Standard-Examiner.

“When that is done, I am done,” he said, the Ogden, Utah, newspaper reported. 

Bishop’s office confirmed the report.

Bishop joked that he might stay on if his House colleagues ask him to run for Speaker, but otherwise said, “One more term, that’s it.”

{mosads}Bishop is in his second term as chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, a panel that gives him oversight of the Interior Department, energy and natural resources development, public lands policy, and Puerto Rico.

Republican leadership enforces term limits for its committee chairs, meaning Bishop can only head his committee for one more two-year term after the current one.

Bishop, 66, has served in the House since 2003. He represents a heavily Republican district and won reelection last year with 66 percent of the vote.