Today, the House of Representatives elected Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to serve as the chamber’s new speaker. Ryan’s ascension to the House’s top job comes after the surprise announcement last month by current Speaker John Boehner of his intention to resign from Congress on October 30. The presumptive frontrunner to succeed Boehner, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), threw the speaker’s race into uncertainty earlier this month when he took his name out of consideration for the office. Though Ryan has never served in the House leadership and was reluctant to enter the race for speaker, he earned the overwhelming support of the Republican caucus and secured enough votes to win the office outright.
During his sixteen years in the House, Ryan has had little direct experience with education and workforce development policy. He most recently served as the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and was the Republican nominee for vice president in 2012. However, he had major impact on federal funding for education and training programs during his four years as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Alongside Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), he secured the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act in 2013. The two-year budget agreement raised discretionary funding caps, which allowed for the restoration of $53 million in cuts to Perkins that occurred under budget sequestration.
Speaker Ryan has a long list of education issues to address in the coming month, including completing ESEA reauthorization, continuing work on higher education reform, passing a long-term FY 2016 funding bill and possibly taking up Perkins reauthorization.
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