Ossoff named chairman of Senate investigations subcommittee

Freshman Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) was announced Wednesday as the new chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a panel with broad jurisdiction to investigate corruption.

Ossoff will have power to issue subpoenas as chairman. The subcommittee, which is part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has conducted investigations in a wide array of areas over the years, including corporate abuses and international terrorism. 

“This Subcommittee will pursue the truth, inform the public, and hold power to account,” Ossoff said in a news release.

Ossoff was named chairman of the investigations subcommittee less than two months after he and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) won Senate runoffs in Georgia that gave Democrats control of the Senate when President Biden took office.

Ossoff’s office noted that the senator, 34, is the youngest chair of the subcommittee, and that another Georgia Democrat, former Sen. Sam Nunn, led the subcommittee from 1979 to 1980 and from 1987 to 1994.

Prior to being elected to the Senate, Ossoff was CEO of an investigative media production company. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said Ossoff’s background will serve him well in leading the subcommittee.

“As a former investigative journalist, Senator Ossoff is uniquely qualified to chair this prestigious subcommittee, which is instrumental to holding our nation’s most powerful entities accountable for wrongdoing,” Peters said. “I look forward to working with him to shed a light on fraud, financial crimes, and other kinds of malpractice whether they take place in the public or private sector.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) will serve as the top Republican on the subcommittee.