GOP adopts ‘Paul Ryan’ rule

House Republicans on Friday passed a “Paul Ryan Rule,” but it wasn’t actually aimed at Paul Ryan.

In a closed-door meeting, Republicans adopted a new rule that would require committee chairmen to step down if they run for higher office, including president or governor.

{mosads}Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), in offering the rule in the private gathering, mentioned Ryan as an example, drawing chuckles from the crowd because the Wisconsin Republican and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate was in the room.

If Ryan decides to run for president in 2016, Cole said according to sources in the room, then he would have to step down from his post as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which he is expected to take in next Congress.

But there’s a caveat: Ryan could make his case to the Republican Steering Committee why he should remain as chairman. And the panel, which is controlled by Speaker John Boehner (Ohio), could grant that chairman an exemption.

“In theory they would hand over the gavel,” one committee chairman told The Hill. “But they could make their argument to the Steering Committee that they’re involved in this important rewrite of the tax code, and therefore the Steering Committee could grant them a waiver.”

Senior GOP sources told The Hill that Cole’s rule was actually aimed at a fellow appropriator, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who ran for the Senate this year but lost. 

Cole, an ally of Boehner’s, was upset with Kingston, sources said, because he was spending much of the year campaigning for the Senate and not fulfilling his duties as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on labor.

The Ryan rule would cover so-called Appropriations Committee “cardinals,” who are the only subcommittee chairmen who are selected by the powerful Steering Committee. 

Asked who he had in mind when he offered his rule, Cole replied: “I’m not getting into naming names.” He later added that he was not thinking of Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, saying, “Paul will do the right thing. If he makes a decision to do something, I trust his judgment.

“If you’re running for office the presumption is that you shouldn’t be holding a gavel, because you simply can’t do your job for our conference and run for another well,” Cole said. “It just doesn’t work well.”