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Ryan takes gavel as House speaker; Boehner exits

The speaker does not have to be a member of Congress.

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Ryan was officially nominated for Speaker of the House by GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

A few time ago, Boehner informally threw his support behind Jeb Bush for president in 2016.

He’ll become the 54th speaker of the House when he’s sworn in, with his hand placed on his own New American Standard Bible that he uses for weekly bible study, his aide said.

The 45-year-old Ryan initially refused to run for the post, citing his young family and his commitment to his job as head of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Before his election, Ryan was spotted on the first floor of the Capitol, sharing a few laughs with his old boss, former Rep. Sam Brownback, now the Republican governor of Kansas. Since Republicans took over the House in 2011, budget debates have often gone down to the wire, setting off brinksmanship and tempers in Washington.

The shutdown-averting budget deal was a parting gift from Boehner. The deal keeps the government open and raises the debt ceiling through 2017. The full house is scheduled to formally elect Ryan as Speaker on Thursday.

The House bill contains several policy riders, including one that would allow debt collectors to use automated dialing to call delinquent student-loan and other debtors’ cellphones, a method the collectors already use to call landline phones.

“I think you’re going to see Paul make an effort to reach out”, said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN.

The battle over the size, scope and cost of government “has been going on for more than 200 years”, Boehner noted, advising his colleagues that “real change takes time”. But early in my life, I wanted to serve this House.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) each received one vote.

In a speech in which John Boehner poked fun at himself for his trademark weepiness and sentimentality, the outgoing House Speaker said “I leave with no regrets, no burdens”. Will Ryan be different from the current Speaker of the House John Boehner? He said he’s having no second thoughts about his decision to resign under conservative pressure, leaving Congress before the end of his term. Many labeled Boehner a noble warrior who chose to “fall on his sword” rather than watch his caucus and his party turn on itself.

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“The House is broken”, Ryan said in his first remarks to the chamber, seemingly referring as much to a GOP civil war between hard-liners and pragmatists as to the House’s usual partisan divisions. In closed-door meetings with House Republicans, Ryan has said he wants to overhaul the tax code, replace President Barack Obama’s health law, and rewrite federal poverty programs-and in the process draw a contrast with Democrats heading into the 2016 presidential election. “We have an obligation here in the people’s house to do the people’s business”, Ryan told reporters after the vote.

US Representative Paul Ryan leaves after a House Republican Conference meeting