Western Pa. congressman for House speaker?

The GOP is having have a hard time choosing a successor to outgoing House Speaker John Boehner. A previous report from The Hill quoted a ton of anonymous House GOP members who wanted Ryan to run as saying they didn’t think he would, and noted that Ryan hasn’t even been making phone calls to House Republican colleagues to gauge support.

They only make up roughly 40 Republicans out of the lower chamber’s 247, but they have the power to throw up more roadblocks if they don’t coalesce around the next leading candidate for speaker. He’s getting pressured – Senator Ron Johnson says because he’s a natural leader.

U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican, had been running for the majority leader post, but Price has not made moves since U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., chose to remain majority leader rather than run for speaker.

One of the challenges in electing the new Congressional leader is the Freedom Caucus, a group of lawmakers that absolutely refuse to cooperate with the Obama administration on any level.

“Would you ensure that the House-passed appropriations bills do not contain funding for Planned Parenthood, unconstitutional amnesty, the Iran deal and ObamaCare?” one question said. Those last two efforts, however, backfired and catapulted the GOP into multiple shutdown fights with Democrats.

Conservative Republicans are especially likely to want a Speaker more conservative than they perceived Boehner to be. Jordan and his conservative colleagues want to change the system so every member has a chance to introduce bills and to get amendments considered, debated and voted on.

If Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by that date, the U.S. could risk a first-ever default on its obligations. “No decisions have been made, but a resolution on the debt ceiling is certainly possible”, said the aide, who asked not to be identified.

“You can tell which members of our caucus never played team sports”, Womack, R-Rogers., said after a lunch speech to the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute at the Doubletree Hotel in Bentonville.

In addition, he is in his second term as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which focuses on election campaigns. Republicans managed to pass a budget and secure most of their priorities over Gov. Maggie Hassan’s objections.

“I think Paul Ryan would be a great one”. Thus he serves as budget chairman on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

House Republicans return from a weeklong recess next week and are planning to meet in private Wednesday. His spokesman repeatedly said this week that he had no updates on Ryan’s decision-making process and said not to expect to find out this week, while Congress is out of session.

“We’re looking for a bottoms-up approach that involves more members, that is consistent with conservative principles”, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, said in an phone interview Wednesday with CBS News.

But there is always the possibility that Ryan could stay on as speaker into the next Congress and push his pro-immigration agenda with the help of a new president, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes legal status for undocumented immigrants.

“They’ll get a honeymoon”, Bost said.