WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Paul Ryan is likely to become the next speaker of the House. He’s already become an unlikely spokesman for balancing family life with work.
A reluctant candidate for the top leadership post, the 45-year-old Ryan made clear this week that he will step forward only under several conditions. One is reducing the travel time and fundraising associated with being speaker, so he can spend weekends at home in Janesville, Wis., with wife Janna and their three school-age kids.
“I cannot and will not give up my family time,” he said after a private meeting Tuesday with House Republicans. “I may not be able to be on the road as much as previous speakers, but I pledged to make up for it with more time communicating our message.”
Ryan’s comments made him the rare Republican, and man, to spotlight the difficulties of balancing the demands of work life and family in an increasingly fast-paced world.
“Three cheers for Paul Ryan,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former State Department official and author of an attention-getting 2012 essay in The Atlantic on leaving her high-level job to head home to her husband and two boys. She said she is pleased that a high-profile man is shedding light on the issue.
“He’ll reinvent the job,” Slaughter said in an interview Wednesday. “We’ll see how he does it.”
Not everyone is pleased with Ryan’s approach. It has met with resistance from some conservatives, inside and outside of Congress, who said being speaker requires total commitment.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, said he has concerns about Ryan’s conditions on family time.
“Speaker’s a big job,” Huelskamp said. “And it’s not a 9-to-5 job. So there are a lot of questions to be answered.”
Another caucus member, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said most members won’t fault Ryan for wanting that family time and that it probably won’t be a determining factor in whether he becomes speaker.
“At the same time, we all know that this job by its very nature takes certain sacrifices. And if you want to move up the ladder, it takes more sacrifices,” Mulvaney said.
Other Republicans balked at anyone who would question Ryan’s request. Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a Ryan supporter, said home time would give Ryan balance.
“Look at how productive he’s been,” Cole said. “Anybody making a point like that probably hasn’t chaired two committees, written four budgets that passed, run for vice president of the United States and now being in a position to be speaker of the House. The guy’s not an underachiever.”
