House Speaker Paul D. Ryan plans to retire after the 2018 midterm elections, capping his Capitol Hill career with tax cuts and possibly welfare reform, according to a report Thursday.
Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, made his exit plans known to those close to him, Politico reported.
His retirement has been whispered about in the halls of Congress for months, but the report Thursday confirmed what many expected and began a jockeying among Republican leaders to succeed him as speaker.
One source told The Washington Times earlier this week that Mr. Ryan was telling confidants that the tax-cut bill was his chief goal, and if Congress can finish it this year the speaker will conclude his work is done.
But Mr. Ryan, at his weekly press conference, suggested there is more still to be done on his goal of fighting poverty.
He said in the next budget the GOP writes in 2018 lawmakers will try to tackle the looming surge of government spending on Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs, and the imbalance in the economy of a shortage of people willing and able to work to support those programs.