The most conservative faction of House Republicans is giving House Speaker Paul Ryan high marks, three weeks after the group helped to oust his predecessor, John Boehner.
“I think it’s a new day and I’m extremely encouraged,” Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said Tuesday at a monthly conservative gathering sponsored by the Daily Signal.
Ryan won the speaker’s gavel last month after Boehner, R-Ohio, announced his retirement. Boehner’s tenure was rattled by conservatives who complained of his top-down style of management and his tendency to punish conservatives for bucking the leadership on key legislation.
Conservatives said Ryan is changing the House management style to end the top-down style of governing and allow more input from rank-and-file members.
“Based on what I have seen from the way Paul Ryan is leading Congress, the reforms I so hoped to see while I was here are finally going to be enacted,” Lummis said. “I see a great new day. The glass is not only half full, it is being filled to the brim.”
Conservatives praised the transportation spending measure House lawmakers passed last week. Ryan allowed lawmakers to debate and vote on more than 100 amendments to that bill, instead of shutting down the process to members.
Ryan has also allowed lawmakers to revamp the GOP steering committee by removing committee chairs and adding rank and file members.
And on Tuesday, he began convening “listening sessions” for GOP lawmakers who are not members of the House Appropriations Committee but want a say in the upcoming spending legislation.
“I think he’s trying to turn a battleship and it’s going to take a long time,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. “I want to give him a lot of credit here, for saying the right things and trying to do the right things at this point.”
But Ryan faces big challenges in the weeks ahead. Lawmakers on Tuesday began clamoring for Ryan to insist that any spending measure that leaves Congress include language that would block President Obama from resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States.
Ryan convened a task force to come up with a standalone measure the House will consider this week, he announced Tuesday.
Congress must pass an omnibus spending measure by Dec. 11, but conservatives seemed happy with Ryan’s plan to pass a separate bill this week. “Waiting until Dec. 11 is a long time,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.
Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, one of nine Republicans who voted against Ryan when he ran for speaker in October, said “Americans are mad” that the GOP Congress has not blocked President Obama’s agenda. But he praised Ryan’s efforts to change the House rules so that conservatives have a greater voice in Congress.
“I’m very encouraged that Paul Ryan is going to be a good speaker,” he said.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said he is “cautiously optimistic.” Ryan faces tests in the near future, Labrador said, including a House-Senate deal on an education bill that attempts to reform the unpopular “No Child Left Behind” program.
“Let’s see what product we get out,” Labrador said. “You do sense a new feeling in the conference, where people are more optimistic and hopeful. And I hope that continues.”
