45-year-old Ryan became the youngest House Speaker in 140 years after receiving 236 votes Thursday morning. Outgoing Speaker John Boehner made the announcement.
Ryan urged lawmakers of in the chamber to reconcile with each other to fix a "broken" House.
"The House is broken. We're not solving problems, we are adding to them."
Ryan vowed to change the way of doing business in the colloquially-named "People's House," giving the rank-and-file members a greater say in drafting new legislation.
"The committees should retake the lead in drafting all major legislation. If you know the issue, you should write the bill."
Ryan was the Republican nominee for vice president in 2012. During his 17 years in the House, he also served as chairman of two of the most powerful committees, namely, the Budget and Ways and Means committees.
When House majority leader Kevin McCarthy shocked the caucus by dropping his bid for the post, Ryan became the clear favorite among all fractions and was elected by his Republican colleagues on Wednesday for the Speaker's job. However, the fact that some stanch conservative Republicans did not cast their votes to support Ryan showed that the fractious House Republican Conference remains as big a challenge to Ryan as it was to Boehner.
Xiaohong, CRI, Washington DC.
