Paul Ryan joins American Enterprise Institute as distinguished visiting fellow

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is taking on another role in the private sector less than a year after leaving Congress.

Ryan is now a distinguished visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the organization announced Tuesday.

He will focus on opportunity, mobility, the social safety net and entitlement reform, according to a news release.

“Paul Ryan has always been among the most substantive and thoughtful of political leaders," president Robert Doar said. "He possesses a keen awareness of how politics works (and doesn’t work), a firm belief in the potential of all Americans, and an understanding of the limitations of the federal government."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in late August that Ryan and his family would rent a home in a suburb of Washington D.C., while keeping their Janesville home.

Ryan is also a guest lecturer this school year at the University of Notre Dame, teaching on U.S. government and political polarization. And in March he joined the board of the new Fox Corp., which is composed of Fox News, Fox Sports, the Fox Network and Fox-owned TV stations.

In Congress from 1999 until January 2019, Ryan spent the last four as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.