Paul Ryan Wins Re-election as House Speaker

By MATT FLEGENHEIMERJAN. 3, 2017



Speaker Paul D. Ryan at Trump Tower in Manhattan last month.CreditSam Hodgson for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul D. Ryan was re-elected to another term by the House on Tuesday, retaining the gavel as Republicans prepared to reverse reams of Obama administration policies in an era of unified Republican government.

For Mr. Ryan, 46, the vote was a formality, affirming his role as the steward of conservative policy making in the age of President-elect Donald J. Trump. Long considered the party’s intellectual core, Mr. Ryan has strained at times to corral the disparate forces in his conference, particularly hard-line members who had fought often with his predecessor, John A. Boehner.

Mr. Trump’s election has, at least temporarily, papered over any major divisions, leaving members ecstatic at the prospect of enacting proposals that stood no chance of passage with a Democrat in the White House.

Mr. Ryan has long promoted his own policy prescriptions, branding the measures as “A Better Way,” centered on durable Republican aims like repealing the Affordable Care Act and peeling away regulations.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Ryan were frequently at odds during the campaign: Mr. Ryan was often critical of Mr. Trump’s most contentious statements, like his questioning of the impartiality of a judge with Mexican heritage in a fraud case involving Trump University. And Mr. Trump tormented Mr. Ryan, lashing out when Mr. Ryan failed to support him fully and calling him a “very weak and ineffective leader” as recently as October.

Lately, relations have been warmer. Last month, Mr. Trump likened the speaker to “a fine wine,” saying he had come to “appreciate his genius more and more.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/us...paul-ryan.html