House Speaker John Boehner is resigning his position as the top House Republican and from Congress at the end of October. Boehner announced his decision to colleagues.
The abrupt decision comes after he faced heavy pressure from the conservative coalition in his party to take a harder line on their causes, most recently over defunding Planned Parenthood, throwing Congress into chaos it tries to avert a government shutdown.
The Republican from Ohio had struggled from almost the moment he took the speaker’s gavel in 2011 to manage the challenges of divided government and the hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members.
Most recently, Mr. 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 Mr. Boehner though their ability to do so was far from certain.
Mr. Boehner’s surprise announcement came just a day after Pope Francis visited the Capitol, the fulfillment of a 20-year dream of having a pontiff address members of Congress. He had a private audience with Francis before the pope’s address to a joint meeting of Congress.