Paul Ryan

=== Pre-Speaker congressional tenure (1999–2015) ===
[[File:Paul Ryan in 2001 (color).jpg|thumb|upright|Official U.S. Congress portrait of Ryan in 2001]]
Ryan became the ranking Republican member of the [[House Budget Committee]] in 2007<ref name="Auto2A-36"/> and became chairman of the committee in 2011 after Republicans took control of the House. That same year, he was selected to deliver the [[Republican response to the State of the Union address]].<ref name="Auto2A-37"/> As of August 2012, Ryan had been the primary sponsor of more than 70 [[Bill (proposed law)|bills]] or amendments,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/politics/ryan/passedbills.asp|title=Bills Passed by Paul Ryan|first=David|last=Mikkelson|date=August 16, 2012 |publisher=snopes.com|access-date=July 12, 2017}}</ref><ref name="washingtonpost1"/> and only two of those bills had become law.<ref name="WashPost"/> One, passed in July 2000, renamed a post office in Ryan's district; the other, passed in December 2008, lowered the [[excise]] tax on [[arrow]] shafts.<ref name="Auto2A-38"/><ref name="Auto2A-39"/> As of August 2012, Ryan had also co-sponsored 975 bills, of which 176 had passed; 22% of these bills were originally sponsored by a Democrat.<ref name="govtrack"/><ref name=WashPost/>

Ryan was a "reliable supporter of the [George W. Bush] administration's foreign policy priorities" who voted for the 2002 [[Iraq Resolution]], authorizing the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]].<ref name="crawforda">Jamie Crawford, [http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/13/ryans-foreign-policy-views-shaped-by-his-budget-battles "Ryan's foreign policy views shaped by his budget battles"], cnn.com, August 13, 2012.</ref>

In 2010, Ryan was a member of the bipartisan [[National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform]] (Bowles-Simpson Commission), which was tasked with developing a plan to reduce the federal deficit. He voted against the final report of the commission.<ref name="Auto2A-40"/> In 2012, Ryan accused the nation's top military leaders of using "[[smoke and mirrors]]" to remain under budget limits passed by Congress.<ref name="Auto2A-41"/><ref name="Auto2A-42"/> Ryan later said that he misspoke on the issue and called [[General (United States)|General]] [[Martin Dempsey]], the [[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]], to apologize for his comments.<ref name="Auto2A-43"/>

[[File:Paul-Ryan-2018-Portrait.jpg|thumb|Official portrait by Leslie W. Bowman, 2018]]