1st LD Writethru: Paul Ryan becomes new speaker of U.S. House of Representatives

Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on Thursday became the 62nd speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives amid widened division within the Republican Party.

The ascent of Ryan, a nine-term Republican congressman, however, was not a result from electoral victory, as did the outgoing speaker John Boehner, who was elected in a sweeping Republican takeover of the House in 2011. Ryan's winning stemmed from the fact that the GOP was still holding 247 seats in the 435-member House.

To be elected as the speaker of the House, a candidate would need at least 218 votes. In Thursday's election, Ryan gained 236 votes.

Republican leadership had been thrusted into uncertainty since late September when Boehner abruptly announced his decision to resign from the speakership at the end of October after rebellions among ranks of House Republicans threatened to oust him from his position.

Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy abruptly dropped bid to replace Boehner moments before House Republicans started voting for the party's nomination.

Like Boehner's abrupt announcement of resignation from Congress last month, McCarthy's giving up highlighted how the insurgence of a relatively small group of hard-line conservatives within the Republican Party challenges the party establishment.

Though complaining the powerlessness and frustration deriving from House Republican leadership's reluctance to consider their hard-line conservative agenda, the hard-line Republicans, who came to Washington on the conservative Tea Party wave of 2010, become the decisive factor in determining who would be the next House speaker in this election.

Without the votes of House Democrats, any Republican nominee cannot afford to lose more than 29 votes of House Republicans in the final full House vote.

The House Freedom Caucus, a group of 40 hard-line Republican conservatives, announced earlier this month they would support less-known Representative Daniel Webster from the state of Florida.

In Thursday's election, though many members of the Freedom Caucus voted for Ryan, nine members still chose Webster as the speaker.

After initial refusal to take the job, Ryan, 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, on Wednesday relented but set several conditions for a candidacy, including a change of House rules that would remove the ability of any House members to seek a vote to vacate the speaker's chair, as what happened to House Speaker John Boehner last month.

Ryan, 45, began working on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide in 1992 and won his House seat in 1998 when he was 28.

Before Mitt Romney chose him as his running mate on the GOP ticket in 2012, Ryan gained national attention for his proposals to overhaul Medicare, the national social insurance program, and restructure the tax code.

After the 2012 defeat, Ryan returned to the House and ruled out his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election.

As the speaker of the House, Ryan would inherit a series of fiscal deadlines from Boehner.

The U.S. Treasure Department had said earlier that the federal government was taking in less revenue than it had anticipated and therefore must increase its borrowing authority by Nov. 3.

If Congress fails to act in four weeks, the government would face a threat of shutdown. It will have to pass the spending bill for the current fiscal year by Dec. 11, the date for the current stopgap bill to expire. Endit