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Ryan, a 44-year-old conservative from Wisconsin who was his
party's nominee for vice president in 2012, is chairman of the
House budget committee in the current Congress. He has said he
wants to chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in the
new Congress that takes office in January.
But under the rule approved Friday by House Republicans,
lawmakers would have to give up the chairmanship of a committee
or an appropriations subcommittee if they run for another
office, such as senator or president.
The provision's author, Representative Tom Cole, said he did not
intend for it to be aimed against Ryan. He had been focused on
lawmakers running for the Senate -- a far more common occurrence
in the House than a presidential campaign.
Cole added a provision that exceptions could be made, after
discussing it with House Speaker John Boehner's office.
"I just want the presumption being if you’re running for
something else, that you give up the gavel and allow somebody
else that’s going to be here to actually set the agenda and do
the work," Cole told reporters outside the Republican gathering.
"The steering committee can waive it, so if we’ve got an unusual
circumstance -- and Paul Ryan would be the perfect example of
that," Cole said.
Representative Mick Mulvaney said he did not think the proposal
offended Ryan, a popular figure among Republican conservatives
in the Capitol who attended the rules session.
"I don't think Paul took it as an affront to him," Mulvaney
said. "If you are going to run for president, maybe you don’t
have time to be chairman of a committee."
(additional reporting by Julia Edwards; editing by Andrew Hay)
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