01:56
The vote was largely a formality
after House Republicans
nominated him for the position
on Wednesday.
But even some conservatives who
did not support Ryan said that
after weeks of infighting, they
were eager to move on and give
Ryan the space to unite the
party's various factions and
craft a legislative agenda.
After losing 43 votes in the
House GOP internal election a
day earlier, only nine House
Republicans voted against Ryan
on the House floor.
Boehner gave a farewell address
before the vote on Thursday, a
day after the House approved a
significant budget deal he
negotiated with President Barack
Obama and congressional
Democrats. The legislation,
which eliminates the possibility
of a default and decreases the
chance of a government shutdown,
effectively gives Ryan a fresh
start.
Will Ryan offer Obama a
fresh start with House GOP?
After he was sworn in as
Speaker, Ryan praised
Boehner, calling him "a true
class act" and urged members
from both sides to come
together.
Ryan attempted to get
members to turn the page
saying "a lot is on our
shoulders. So if you ever
pray, pray for each other --
Republicans for Democrats,
Democrats for Republicans."
After a standing ovation
Ryan joked, "And I don't
mean pray for a conversion."
He becomes the third
Catholic in a row in the
position, after Boehner and
Nancy Pelosi, now the
Minority Leader. He took the
oath on his own copy of the
New American bible and kept
the gavel he wielded as
Chairman of the powerful tax
writing committee.
Ryan will face 'monumental
obstacles' as speaker
The 45-year-old Wisconsin
Republican first worked on
Capitol Hill as a legislative
aide in 1992 and won his House
seat in 1998 when he was 28.
Before officially handing him
the gavel, Pelosi congratulated
him and noted his path to the
speakership went from serving as
a young aide, and "a Tortilla
Coast waiter," a restaurant just
steps from the Capitol he will
now preside over.
During his tenure in the House,
Ryan became known as a policy
wonk and attracted national
attention for his sweeping
proposals to overhaul Medicare
and restructure the tax code. In
2012, Mitt Romney picked Ryan to
be his running mate on the GOP
ticket. After Republicans lost
that election, he returned to
the House and ruled out running
for president in 2016, instead
settling into what he called his
"dream job" as chairman of the
House tax writing committee.
Romney and his wife Ann were
watching with Ryan's family
inside the House chamber as he
took the oath of office.
With the speaker's title,
Ryan takes on a national
profile and the difficult
challenge of corralling what has
been an unruly and divided House
GOP conference.
In
his first speech he said the
constant drama wasn't what the
American people wanted and tried
to move past it.
"We are not solving problems. We
are adding to them. And I am not
interested in laying blame. We
are not settling scores. We are
wiping the slate clean," Ryan
said.
As
he has been doing in the days
leading up to Thursday's
election, Ryan stressed he
wanted members to have a greater
imprint on legislation, and that
he would empower committees and
members with expertise to write
bills instead of drafting them
out of the Speaker's office.
"We will not always agree -- not
all of us, not all of the time.
But we should not hide our
disagreements. We should embrace
them. We have nothing to fear
from honest differences honestly
stated. If you have ideas, let's
hear them."
After Ryan delivered his maiden
speech as Speaker he walked down
to shake hands with his
colleagues, even with one who
voted against him, still holding
the Bible he placed his hand on
to take the oath of office.
Is Ryan the new poster child of
work-life balance?