Ryan to back budget deal

Rep. Paul Ryan said Wednesday he’ll back a sweeping two-year budget deal, just a day after lashing out at how the bipartisan accord came together.

The Wisconsin Republican, who’s expected to be nominated by his colleagues Wednesday as the next Speaker of the House, explained that passing the bill would mark a fresh start for his conference. For months, conservatives and centrists in the House GOP have been at war, prompting Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to call it quits in the middle of his term.   

The budget agreement, which would raise spending caps and the debt ceiling, is expected to pass the House later Wednesday.

“What I’ve heard from members over the last two weeks is a desire to wipe the slate clean, put in place a process that builds trust, and start focusing on big ideas,” Ryan said in a statement before attending a Speaker candidates’ forum Wednesday morning. “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.

“It’s time for us to turn the page on the last few years and get to work on a bold agenda that we can take to the American people,” Ryan added.

Ryan is expected to be nominated for Speaker in a closed-door GOP conference meeting Wednesday afternoon. He faces a little-known challenger, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.).

Then, in a formal floor vote on Thursday, Republicans will elect Ryan as the 54th Speaker of the House. If all goes according to plan, Boehner will resign on Friday, capping a quarter century in Congress.

Hard-line conservatives had been pressuring Ryan to oppose the budget deal, which was negotiated behind closed doors by the White House, Boehner and the three other congressional leaders. In fact, Ryan on Tuesday said the secret process of how it was put together “stinks.”

But Ryan, the Ways and Means Committee chairman for the past year, is already aware that serving in leadership will often mean taking positions that are unpopular with the base.

“Once again, we are facing a hard deadline and few good options. There is no doubt that a better process would have produced a better result,” Ryan said. 

“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. We simply can’t keep doing business this way.”

This story was updated at 8:57 a.m.