US House Speaker Boehner will resign from Congress in October
US House Speaker John Boehner has told Republican lawmakers he will resign at the end of October, throwing Congress into chaos as it tries to avert a government shutdown.
In a closed-door emotional meeting with Republican legislators on Friday morning, the embattled Ohioan said that he would resign from both his speakership and his House seat, according to aides and lawmakers.
"Speaker Boehner believes that the first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution and, as we saw yesterday with the Holy Father, it is the one thing that unites and inspires us all," a Boehner aide said.
Boehner struggled from almost the moment he took charge of his office in 2011 to hold together his fractious and conservative Republican lawmakers.
Boehner’s decision to step down as speaker comes after he faced intense pressure over several controversial issues, such as the issue of federal funding for women's healthcare provider Planned Parenthood.
Conservatives have demanded that the speaker take action to defund Planned Parenthood as part of a measure to keep the government open. Others have slammed that strategy, saying it could lead to a government shutdown that would damage the Republican Party in the 2016 elections.
Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides reproductive health as well as maternal and child health services. The organization has been under fire over allegations that it has improperly used fetal tissue from abortions.
Conservatives demand Congress must punish Planned Parenthood over the abortion controversy by denying it federal funding.
The Ohio representative’s resignation will allow House Republicans to approve a short-term piece of legislation that will keep money supply to Planned Parenthood open, averting a shutdown of government agencies on October 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
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