Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced his big 2016 priority would be advancing a “pro-growth agenda.”  

And although he doesn’t yet know what that agenda will look like, he wants all Republicans to have a say in its shaping. The Wisconsin Republican said Thursday he’s asking his members to come to the annual legislative retreat early in the new year with ideas for what they want the party to accomplish.  

“I’m not going to be the speaker of the House dictating exactly how we assemble our agenda and what’s in the agenda,” he said at his weekly news briefing. “What I’m doing is creating a format, a structure, for our members to come together and participate in how to build a pro-growth agenda and lay it out for the country. So that is a decision we are going to make jointly as a conference.”  

Ryan: GOP Will Build 2016 Agenda Together

“One of the things I’m going to try to do in this position is not hold power so closely, but to decentralize it so that all of the members of our conference, so that all members of Congress, have an ability to truly participate in this situation, in assembling this agenda.”  

Ryan’s aim of making the House Republican’s 2016 legislative platform a collaborative one is consistent with everything else he’s done since taking over the speakership several weeks ago.  

Building a broad and substantive agenda in a presidential election year, however, is a risky operation, and Ryan will soon find out whether it’s possible to unify all 246 disparate voices in his conference.

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