Striding through the congressional hallway, head and shoulders above the majority of the visitors to the Longworth House Office Building, 6-foot-2-inch Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) walks at a brisk clip, talking expressively with his hands.
Ryan gets most animated when he’s discussing the budget. The 37-year-old former staffer is known in the House as one of the GOP’s brightest members and as the go-to guy on anything budget-related.
During the Republican protest of the Democratic earmark policy earlier this month, Ryan spoke out against what he believed was an affront to transparency on earmark reform.
“[Democrats] have gone backwards, back on their word, back from bringing transparency and accountability to Congress,” Ryan said. “So let me just say for the record, both parties have messed this up.”
Republican leadership often calls on Ryan, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, to stand up on issues of spending — this despite the fact he is often critical of his party’s recent record on spending. Last year, Ryan was one of 21
GOP lawmakers who voted with Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on each of his 19 amendments that would have struck earmarks from appropriations bills.
Ryan said his fiscal responsibility begins at home. As a father of three young children, he and his wife Janna, a former tax lawyer, keep a close eye on the finances at his residence in Wisconsin.
“I pay all the bills and do all the budgeting,” Ryan said.
Reince Priebus, president of Wisconsin Republicans, said, “You can sit down with Paul and have a brat[wurst] and a beer and talk about hunting … or have a discussion about the budget for two hours. He’s happy to discuss either one of them.”
On Capitol Hill, Ryan’s patience and willingness to explain complicated budgetary matters to members who do not have the
zeal for the intricate minutiae makes him a standout, said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).
“No matter how much you think you know about the budget, Paul Ryan knows more,” Hensarling said.
“He really is a normal guy with an uncanny ability to wrap his arms around budget fiscal matters on the federal level,” Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) added.
Ryan’s rise has been well documented. Three years before his 1998 run for the House, Ryan was cited by the National Journal as a “rising star” when he served as the legislative director for Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).
Much like his future ambitions, Ryan is “holding his powder” on whom he will endorse for the top of the Republican ticket in 2008, although he said it was unlikely that his choice will be Brownback.
“We are different kinds of conservatives,” he said, adding he has nothing but respect for his former employer.
After working for Brownback, Ryan entered the hotly contested race for the 1st district of Wisconsin and easily beat his general election opponent. Ryan’s district is among the more centrist in the nation, as President Bush attracted 51 percent of the vote in 2000 and 54 percent in 2004.
National Republican leaders seized on Ryan’s momentum quickly, so quickly that they neglected to inform him in 2004 that he was a key prime-time speaker at the Republican National Convention.
“I have no clue [how the decision occurred]. I didn’t know about that one until they announced it at a conference; they didn’t even give me a heads-up,” Ryan said. “They just announced a panel of prime-time speakers and threw my name out there … I was like, ‘Who did they say?’ and then someone said, ‘You.’”
He has been encouraged by his supporters to make a run for higher office at the state and federal levels, including by former boss Jack Kemp, whom he served as speechwriter early in his career.
“He could go anywhere he wants to,” Kemp said, adding the Senate would make a good place for Ryan’s rising political profile.
Ryan credits Kemp as raising him politically but indicated a run for the Senate would be premature.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Ryan said.
Unlike some of his conservative colleagues in the lower chamber, Ryan voted with the president and House GOP leaders on the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill.
Following Bush’s reelection, Ryan was outspoken on the need for private accounts in Social Security, an issue that many House Republicans shied away from.
Ryan has forged friendships in places where few lawmakers have dared to venture, namely with fellow delegation member Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) and former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.).
“I admire their intellect,” Ryan said when asked how he came to befriend some of the more prickly lawmakers.
Sensenbrenner, the caustic former Judiciary Committee chairman, is a frequent dinner companion of Ryan’s and one of his biggest fans.
“I think he’ll be the chairman of Ways and Means in the next decade,” Sensenbrenner said. “Paul is very, very bright ….We get dinner about every other week together.”
Sensenbrenner added, “I have been a mentor for him, for better or worse.”
“He’s like a big brother to me,” Ryan said of Sensenbrenner.
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