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Paul Ryan's retirement means Congress is 'effectively closed for business'

With the retirement of House Speaker Paul Ryan, the likelihood of any major legislative push in Congress before the midterms is effectively dead.

  • House Speaker Paul Ryan announced he will not run for reelection in November and retire from Congress at the end of the term.
  • The move likely dooms any chance for a major legislative push before the midterm elections.

House Speaker Paul Ryan's decision against seeking reelection not only leaves a void at the top of the Republican Party. It also likely crushes any hopes of a major legislative push before the 2018 midterms elections.

Policy analysts say Ryan's retirement is a reminder of just how quiet Congress is expected to be before the much-anticipated elections in November.

With little consensus between parties and few major policy pushes expected from Republican leadership, the next seven months may pass with no major legislative changes.

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For his part, Ryan suggested the GOP still plans to try and push through various legislative goals — such as entitlement reform — before the end of the term.

Ryan said at a press conference on Wednesday that the Senate's inability to take up an entitlement reform bill that passed the House was disappointing, but he would continue to work toward that goal.

"I feel from all the budgets that I passed, normalizing entitlement reform, pushing the cause of entitlement reform, and the House passing entitlement reform, I am very proud of that fact," Ryan said. "But yeah, of course more work needs to be done, and it really is entitlements."

Entitlement reform, the push to cut spending on major programs such as Medicaid and Social Security, has been on the top of Ryan's wish list since the start of his congressional career.

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Rep. Mark Walker, chair of the influential Republican Study Committee, encouraged Ryan's push.

"If you know Paul at all, and his character, he's going to continue to push hard. This is effective in January and I think he's going to work very hard on that and he's going to go for the trifecta: rebuild the military, tax reform, and reform entitlements," Walker told Business Insider.

Given that any major entitlement change would need support in the Senate from Democrats, the talk from Ryan and Republicans is likely just wishful thinking, said Greg Valliere, chief global strategist at Horizon Investments.

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