A top House Republican is reportedly about to resign

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A top House Republican is reportedly about to resign

Pat Tiberi Rob Portman

AP Photo/John Minchillo

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio.

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  • A Republican House member from Ohio is expected to resign as early as this week.
  • Rep. Pat Tiberi has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2001.
  • The New York Times notes Tiberi is an "influential member" of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Republican House member from Ohio, is expected to resign as early as this week, The New York Times reported late Wednesday night.

Tiberi has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2001, and is an "influential member" of the House Ways and Means Committee with "close ties to his party's leaders," The Times notes. Tiberi was in the running to chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in 2015, but lost out to Rep. Kevin Brady.

According to The Times' report, Tiberi is expected to join the Ohio Business Roundtable.

While he has not announced his resignation, Tiberi's colleagues in the House seemed to signal his departure. Tiberi did not respond to a phone call or a text message seeking comment on Wednesday night.

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Representative Tom Cole told The Times that he was "happy for my friend, but Congress will be a poorer place without him."

Tiberi's resignation would be surprising. He was reportedly weighing a campaign to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, a state that Republican President Donald Trump won in 2016.

Tiberi had more than $6.6 million in his re-election account as of October, according to The Times.

However, Tiberi had been openly critical about the pace of progress in Washington this year, even with a Republican president and Republican controlled Congress.

"It's the elephant in the room right now," Tiberi said in May, speaking about the investigations into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia.

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"The smartest minds in the White House know that, whether it's tax reform or anything else on the public policy front," he said to Reuters. "It's hard enough to get things done in the US Capitol under the best of circumstances."