(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives backed Paul Ryan yesterday to serve as the next Speaker of the House.
The caucus voted in a closed door session in favour of Ryan, who replaces John Boehner who is leaving Congress at the end of the month.
Ryan, 45, represents a rural district in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin and since January has been chairman of the House's tax-writing panel, after previously leading the budget committee. He would be the 62nd House Speaker and the youngest since 1869.
The Republican vice presidential nominee in 2012, Ryan had reluctantly become the focus of efforts to replace Boehner, who is quitting the speakership after years of infighting with right-wing members of his own party.
After insisting since last month that he preferred to continue in his tax-writing post, Ryan pivoted last week, saying he would be "glad to serve" as speaker if House Republicans - including the restive right-wing - unified behind him.
Conservative opposition Republicans, who have held a majority in the House since January 2011, currently have 247 members in the 435-seat chamber.
Boehner's deputy, Kevin McCarthy, shocked members by withdrawing his speaker candidacy earlier this month after failing to secure the support of the most conservative faction of the Republican caucus.
Lawmakers have urged Ryan to accept the post after the announcement of Boehner's departure and McCarthy's move added to uncertainty in Congress in the midst of crucial decisions on the delayed 2016 budget. The House was due to vote on a budget agreement hammered out by Boehner and other leaders later yesterday.
Ryan, who has criticised the backroom process by which the deal was struck by congressional leaders and the White House with no input from rank-and-file lawmakers, said in a statement that he would still vote for it.
"What has been produced will go a long way toward relieving the uncertainty hanging over us, and that's why I intend to support it," said Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate and chair of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee,
But Ryan also said he wanted a more bottom-up approach if he is elected Speaker.
"I don't plan to be Caesar, calling all the shots around here," he told a closed-door meeting of Republicans, according to Representative Matt Salmon, an Arizona conservative.
Ryan reluctantly decided to run for Speaker after various quarrelling party factions unified behind him. But he still faces a longshot challenger, Representative Daniel Webster of Florida.
"If I'm elected Speaker, we will begin a conversation about how to approach these big issues - as a team - long before we reach these kinds of deadlines," Ryan said of the budget and debt deal.
Several right-wingers, even some who plan to support Ryan, have said they will reject the budget deal, which would extend the US Treasury's borrowing authority through March 2017 and allow $80bn in additional spending over two years.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Republicans needed to provide a "basic number" of votes for passage.
Asked how many votes Democrats would provide, she said, "We'll have enough."
The US government is approaching a Nov. 3 deadline for lifting its debt limit, or face the risk of default.
The outlook for the legislation in the Senate was unclear. Conservative Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said he will launch procedural objections to slow its advance because he wants to hold the line on both military and domestic spending.
Farm-state lawmakers from both parties have objected to a provision of the bill that cuts subsidies for crop insurers, which would save an estimated $3bn over 10 years.
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