In an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans this morning, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner (R-OH), under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, resigned as leader of the House. As Speaker, Boehner was third in line after the President and Vice President should either of them get incapacitated.
According to The New York Times, Boehner will give up his Ohio House seat at the end of October, which has the potential to sidetrack Congress as it tries to avert a government shutdown. The fiscal year’s budget for the federal government ends midnight September 30.
Boehner had struggled from almost the moment he took the speaker’s gavel in 2011 to manage the challenges of divided government and to hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members. Most recently, Boehner was trying to craft a solution to keep the government open through the rest of the year, but was under pressure from a growing base of conservatives who told him they would not vote for a bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood. Several of those members were on a path to remove Boehner though their ability to do so was far from certain.
House Republicans have roughly one month to vote on a new House leadership.
