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ByEricaWerner TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON Rep. Paul Ryan on Thursday formally declared his candidacy for speaker of the House af- ter getting unified support from across the Republican conference. "After talking with so many of you, and hearing your words of encourage- ment, I believe we are ready to move forward as a one, united team," Ryan said in a letter to colleagues. "And I am ready and eager to be our speaker." The Wisconsin lawmaker and onetime GOP vice pres- idential nominee will be all but assured of triumphing in elections next week. Ryan sought unity from divided Republicans as a condition for his candi- dacy. He succeeded in get- ting support from three major caucuses within the GOP, including the hard- line Freedom Caucus that forced the current speaker, John Boehner, to announce his resignation. Ryan would inherit a House with major budget- ary and spending dead- lines on the horizon. At 45 he would become one of the youngest House speakers in history. In announcing his po- tential candidacy for the speaker's job earlier this week, Ryan had said he wanted endorsements from all three groups to guaran- tee he would emerge as a unity candidate for House Republicans — not risk becoming the latest vic- tim of the intraparty un- rest roiling Capitol Hill and the presidential cam- paign. The Freedom Cau- cus' support fell short of a formal endorsement, since that would have required 80 percent agreement that the group was not able to achieve, but Ryan accepted it as a show of unity. The decision would put the Wisconsin lawmaker in a role he never wanted and did not intend to seek, but could offer the fratri- cidal House GOP a chance to chart a new course af- ter years of chaos, and al- low Republicans to refocus away from fighting each other and onto the race for the White House. "Paul's a uniquely capa- ble communicator and it will be an asset for us to have his ability to frame the issues that we all care about," said GOP Rep. Pat- rick Meehan of Pennsylva- nia. Ryan's leadership will "support really what will be an agenda going into the 2016 campaign season," Meehan said. Ryan had sought the speakership only when a dangerous leadership void emerged in the House af- ter Boehner announced plans to resign under con- servative pressure, and Ma- jority Leader Kevin McCar- thy abruptly withdrew from the race to replace him. Al- though a dozen or so other lawmakers were also explor- ing the race, most Republi- cansviewedRyanastheonly figure capable of uniting warring factions in the GOP. Ryan initially demurred but relented under heavy pressure from GOP lead- ers — with conditions. He sought united support and enough flexibility to spend time with his wife and kids in Wisconsin. He also sought to change a House rule allowing an individual lawmaker to force a vote on ousting the speaker at any time, the arcane procedure conservatives were threat- ening against Boehner be- fore he resigned. CONGRESS PaulRyanisin,willseek the job of House speaker MANUELBALCECENETA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday, following meetings with House Republican leaders and the Freedom Caucus members. By Josh Lederman The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama vetoed a sweeping $612 billion de- fense policy bill Wednes- day in a rebuke to congres- sional Republicans, and insisted they send him a better version that doesn't tie his hands on some of his top priorities. In an unusual veto cer- emony, Obama praised the bill for ensuring the mili- tary stays funded and mak- ing improvements on mil- itary retire- ment and cybersecu- rity. Yet he pointedly accused Re- publicans of resorting to "gimmicks" and prohib- iting other changes needed to address modern security threats. "Unfortunately, it falls woefully short," Obama said. "I'm going to be send- ing it back to Congress, and my message to them is very simple: Let's do this right." The rare presidential veto marked the latest wrinkle in the ongoing fight between Obama and Republicans who control Congress over whether to increase federal spending — and how. FouryearsafterCongress passed and Obama signed into law strict, across-the- board spending limits, both parties are eager to bust through the caps for de- fense spending. But Obama has insisted that spending on domestic programs be raised at the same time, set- ting off a budget clash with Republicans that has yet to be resolved. To side-step the bud- get caps, known in Wash- ington as sequestration, lawmakers added an ex- tra $38.3 billion to a sep- arate account for wartime operations that is immune to the spending limits. The White House has dis- missed that approach as a "gimmick" that fails to deal with the broader problem or provide long- term budget certainty for the Pentagon. Obama also rejects the bill as written due to provi- sions making it harder for him to transfer suspected terror detainees out of the military prison in Guan- tanamo Bay, Cuba, a key campaign promise that Obama is hard-pressed to fulfill before his term ends. The White House has also expressed concerns over provisions prevent- ing military base closures and funding equipment beyond what the military says it needs. But Republicans lam- basted Obama for priori- tizing the domestic spend- ing he seeks over the secu- rity of U.S. troops and the nation they protect. "This is the worst possi- ble time for an American president to veto their na- tional defense bill, and es- pecially to do so for arbi- trary partisan reasons," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. The veto forces Con- gress to revise the bill or try to settle the larger bud- get dispute. Although Republicans have vowed to try to over- ride Obama's veto, the White House insisted it was confident it had the votes to ensure Obama's veto stays in place. UNUSUAL CEREMONY Obama rebukes GOP, ve to es $ 61 2B d ef en se b il l Obama By Mary Clare Jalonick The Associated Press WASHINGTON Nonviolent drug offenders could be el- igible for shorter prison sentences under legislation approved by a Senate panel Thursday, as Congress took initial steps to change the nation's criminal justice system. On a vote of 15-5, the Judiciary Committee ap- proved a bill to give judges discretion to give lesser sen- tences than federal man- datory minimums in some cases. The measure would eliminate mandatory life sentences for three-time, nonviolent drug offenders, reducing minimum sen- tences for those offenders to 25 years. It also would cre- ate programs to help pris- oners successfully re-enter society. In a rare display of bipar- tisanship, the legislation is backed by Senate Judi- ciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and the senior Democrat on the panel, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Re- publican in the Senate, and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, are also supporters. The legislation also has the backing of the Obama administration and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W. Bush. The aims of the bill are to make the sentencing system fairer, reduce re- cidivism and contain ris- ing prison costs. The fed- eral prison population has exploded since 1980, in part because of mandatory min- imum sentences for nonvio- lent drug offenders. "It's the just and moral thing to do," Grassley said. "Inmates will be able to re- turn to society earlier and become productive, law- abiding citizens." President Barack Obama praised the legislation at an event on criminal justice issues at the White House Thursday. He said the time has come to make changes. "I do think that we're in a unique moment in which, on a bipartisan basis, across the political spectrum, peo- ple are asking hard ques- tions about our criminal jus- tice system and how can we make it both smart, effec- tive, just, fair," Obama said. Disparate voices — from Obama and the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Koch In- dustries — have agreed the current system is broken. In 1980, the federal prison population was less than 25,000. Today, it is more than 200,000. At the same time, na- tional attention has focused on how police and crimi- nal justice treat minorities after several high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police in several states, including Missouri and Maryland. The bill is a compromise. While some of the Demo- crats wanted to eliminate mandatory minimums, Republicans like Grassley were concerned that reduc- ing them could let danger- ous criminals go free. Partly to placate some of those conservatives, the Senate legislation would create new mandatory minimums for some charges related to domestic violence and ter- rorism. Under the bill, some current inmates could get their sentences reduced by as much as 25 percent by taking part in rehabilita- tion programs, if they are deemed a low risk to of- fend again. The measure also limits solitary confine- ment for juveniles in federal custody and allows nonvio- lent offenders older than 60, terminally ill offenders and those in nursing homes who have already served much of their sentences to be re- leased from prison. 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