WASHINGTON — Giving hope to House Republicans who have been besieged by conflict and chaos, Rep. Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday that he would be willing to serve as speaker if all the factions of his party could unite behind him.
In direct and at moments pointed remarks in a private session with his colleagues, Ryan called for changes both to the way the speaker's job is structured — saying it should be more focused on communicating the message of the party and less on fundraising — and for an end to the antics of "bomb throwers and hand wringers," according to members in the room.
"We have become the problem," Ryan said in a news conference afterward. "If my colleagues entrust me to be the speaker, I want us to become the solution."
Ryan also made it clear that he would not accede to preconditions set by "one group" demanding changes, a clear reference to the members of the hard-line Freedom Caucus that helped to push Speaker John A. Boehner into early retirement. Now it may be those same hard-liners who are feeling pressure to fall in line behind Ryan.
By demonstrating a willingness to serve but with the caveat of essentially demanding unconditional acceptance, Ryan appeared to be playing a rather canny card. Instead of begging for support, he more or less dared members not to give it, essentially leaving them the option of rejecting him and trying to find yet another willing candidate while explaining to the party — and perhaps the nation — why Ryan was not a viable choice.
His decision, an abrupt pivot after saying for weeks he did not want the job, fundamentally alters the dynamic in the race for speaker, and could give Republicans much sought-after clarity after weeks of internal turmoil. But it was still uncertain whether Ryan, the Republican nominee for vice president in 2012, could unite all factions, and he suggested that he wanted an answer by Friday.
"I came to the conclusion that this is a very dire moment, not just for Congress, not just for the Republican Party, but for our country," Ryan said.
One of the candidates for the job, Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, said he would drop out and support Ryan. "I'm excited," Chaffetz said "I supported him for vice president. I think he would be wonderful, exceptional as speaker."
Some conservatives hinted at supporting Ryan, but stopped short of an explicit backing.
"I think my response reflects the view of the overwhelming majority of the conference," said Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a member of the Freedom Caucus, which has endorsed Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida. "I think he was quite realistic in what he asked for. His candidacy is going to create conversations that I suspect will be quite animated."
Ryan is viewed by many in the fractious Republican conference as a force for unity, even as the far-right members have demanded more power and caused more headaches for the party as it tries to prove itself capable of governing as a majority.
There is fear among many Republicans that the same issues that brought Boehner's leadership to an early end would spell trouble for Ryan, too. He would face a series of urgent and difficult fiscal challenges heading into an election year, including a possible federal default if Congress does not increase the government's borrowing authority and a December deadline for a budget measure to avert a government shutdown.
"It's not a job I've ever wanted, I've ever sought," Ryan said.
The most conservative group of House members have been cool to the idea of his candidacy, and Ryan had not been willing to yield to their demands that the next speaker change House rules extensively to empower a minority of members. The far-right media have also been bludgeoning Ryan on a number of issues, including his vote in 2008 to bail out large banks and his role in brokering a bipartisan budget measure.
The father of three young children, Ryan also clearly did not relish the idea of spending hundreds of days on the road raising money for Republican candidates instead of spending time with family in his hometown, Janesville, Wisconsin.
"I cannot and I will not give up my family," Ryan said. "I may not be on the road as often as previous speakers, but I pledge to make up for it with more time communicating our vision, our message."
Ryan already has what he has often said is his dream job: chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, where he has been trying to assemble sweeping legislation to overhaul and simplify the tax code and other measures that could come to fruition under a Republican president.
But it seems that the calls of his colleagues — and perhaps the fear that no one qualified would ever step up — changed his mind.
"We need to do this as a team," Ryan said.
So far, that has not been the role the Freedom Caucus has played. They are demanding a shift in power away from the House's leadership team, giving them and other individual members more say over how the House operates and how legislation is drafted.
Ryan met with a handful of Freedom Caucus members before the closed-door conference meeting in what Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, described as "an informal discussion."
"We weren't asking anything of him, and he wasn't asking anything of us," Amash said.
In interviews last week, several of them said they were willing to force a default or a shutdown of the government to achieve their aims.
While they were once focused almost exclusively on cutting government spending, they now have relatively few legislative goals.
One member of the caucus, Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia, has issued a list of 10 commitments he expects any speaker to make, including opposing amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally and reducing the speaker's power.
Like his colleagues in the caucus, Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona has been sharply critical of House Republican leaders, who he said had exercised power "only for power's sake."
The contest for House speaker "is not about an individual, but about the policies and procedures we live under," he said. "We have to push and push and push to make sure the House is an institution that does its job well."