Speaker of the House John Boehner will resign and give up his House seat at the end of October amid intense pressure from conservatives in his party, throwing Congress into chaos as it tries to avoid a government shutdown, an article in the New York Times said.
The article noted that Boehner, who was first elected to Congress in 1990, made the announcement in an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans on Friday morning. He will officially be leaving at the end of October.
Most recently, Boehner, 65, 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 that they would not vote for a bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood.
“Speaker Boehner has led the House through some of the toughest times our country has ever faced and did so with poise, patience, and an unmatched grace. He will be sorely missed. I thank John for his service to our nation and wish him and Debbie all the best moving forward,"said U.S. Representative Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee.
In January, John Boehner won another term as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, as Republicans took control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in eight years, according to coverage in the BBC.
