U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus will not seek a waiver that would allow him to serve another term as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

The Sixth District representative told the Republican Conference Steering Committee that he would not ask them to waive a rule that limits members to serving three terms as either a committee chairman or the ranking minority member, or both.

That rule, which was imposed by Republicans when they took over the majority in the House in 1994, was reinstated when the GOP again won the majority in 2010. (The Democratic Caucus does not have a similar rule.)

Bachus served as chairman of the committee starting at that time, but had been the ranking member for four years before that under the Democrat majority, when the committee was chaired by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Bachus’ decision to forego a waiver was mentioned briefly in a larger report about who would head the committee in the coming Congress, featured on NationalJournal.com in a report by Stacy Kaper. The mention did not garner much notice until it was reported last weekend by BigGovernment.com, a website run by conservative Internet provocateur Andrew Breitbart. That report was, in turn, further publicized by Bachus’ opponents in this year’s Republican primary, including State Sen. Scott Beason  of Gardendale.

Breitbart has been a vocal opponent of Bachus, calling for him to resign his House seat altogether after accusations were leveled against the Congressman in the book, “Throw Them All Out” by Peter Schweitzer. The book accused Bachus of trading stocks and stock options using insider information gained from his position as committee chairman or ranking minority member. Bachus has said that he had traded stocks and options actively in the past, but did not benefit from any information also available to the public; he further strenuously disputed many of the details of trades in the book. He has since ceased active trading.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), were also accused by Schweitzer of similar insider trading.

The allegations against Bachus led to several candidates qualifying to run against him in the GOP primary on March 13, including Beason, Blount County Probate Judge/Commission President David Standridge of Hayden and developer Stan Pate of Tuscaloosa. The winner of the primary will face the survivor of a two-candidate Democratic primary in November. It’s the first time in more than a decade that Bachus has faced more than token opposition for his seat from within his own party.

Should he win the primary, it will also be the first time he runs against a Democrat whose name appears on the regular ballot, as opposed to a write-in. Bachus has not faced a Democrat in the general election in 14 years; his last general-election opponent came 10 years ago from a Libertarian candidate.