House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Wednesday he hasn’t planned his next career move yet, but already has a job lined up as his daughter’s volleyball coach.
And he doesn’t even know how to play.
“I’m going to be a volleyball coach come January,” the Wisconsin Republican said, when asked what his plans are after he retires at the end of the year.
Ryan then confessed he does not know how to play the game and said “I’m going to read a book about it or something.”
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In an interview with WisPolitics.com President Jeff Mayers that took place in the Capitol, Ryan told Mayers he also plans to “hunt a lot,” when he returns to Janesville and is generally at peace with his tenure as speaker. He pointed to the 860 bills the 115th session of the House has passed, including comprehensive tax reform, which Ryan said would be his legacy.
The House has been “enormously productive,” he said, adding that “at this phase and state of my life and family, it’s the perfect time for me to do what I’m doing.”
Ryan gave a few clues that he is far from done with politics.
When he leaves Congress, Ryan, who considers himself a Reagan conservative, said he’s going to spend time trying to figure out how to sell his brand of conservatism without having to resort to the tribalism and identity politics that has come to dominate the Republican and Democratic parties.
“How do you make inclusive, aspirational, unifying politics, how do you make it strategically valuable,” Ryan said, adding that when he leaves Congress he will work on “how to beat tribalism and show it’s not only the morally right thing to do, it’s the strategically right thing to do. We have a ways to go on that.”
Ryan announced his plan to retire earlier this year and told GOP lawmakers he wanted to spend more time with his wife and three school-aged children.
Since becoming speaker, Ryan said, he travels about 12 weeks more per year than when he was just a member of Congress. “I won’t miss the travel.”
Asked for his advice for the next speaker, Ryan said, “have a vision, get the team to agree to the vision, hold people accountable to it, set a timeline, and execute. That’s what we did it and it worked for us.”
