As a friend and a colleague, I was proud to support him and vote for him to be the Speaker of the House.
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Ryan now faces the tough task of mending the party’s divisions ahead of next year’s elections.
The Freedom Caucus members who backed Ryan included Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, one of several conservatives who was punished for bucking the GOP leadership in the last Congress. Huelskamp lost his Agriculture committee seat in 2012 and was denied a subcommittee chairmanship on another committee in January.
Congress is divided, and people are looking to this new speaker to unite lawmakers. Speaker Ryan has taken up an empty post that ironically, thanks to Citizens United, has no real power outside of committee assignments and controlling the House floor.
John Boehner will return to Ohio on Friday and officially resign from Congress a day later after serving 24 years in the House and the last five years as its speaker.
Ryan, the youngest speaker elected since 1869, will bring a welcome change in the atmosphere under the Capitol dome, said Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville. “The committees should retake the lead in drafting all major legislation”.
On Thursday, Romney was nothing but supportive, tweeting out a picture with Ryan and bragging he got the first “speaker selfie”.
Now, the passing of the gavel in the House of Representatives today. “We need to make a few changes, starting with how the House does business”, Ryan said in his prepared statement.
The plan extends the federal debt limit through March 2017 and eases automatic spending caps to add US$80 billion (S$111 billion) in new discretionary spending over two years.
Ryan said as representatives, the House’s role is to be the voice of the people, which they can not do if they are not united. Trump also went on to criticize former Speaker John Boehner over his negotiation tactics on the budget, saying that he should not have ruled out a government shutdown from the outset of negotiations.
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Ryan soon after taking over urged the White House to have a fresh start, to move forward. “I think history will be kind to him, but I think Paul does have a better ability to communicate”. “Conservative has delivered Republicans historic majorities in both the House and the Senate, and they have a right to expect results”. Rep. Greg Meeks, D-N.Y., did not vote.
