Big moments in Boehner's nearly 5 years as House speaker

The Republicans captured control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections, propelled by the birth of the tea party and anger at President Barack Obama.

In 2011, Boehner and Obama met secretly in hopes of negotiating a "grand bargain" that would rein in the nation's spending, raise some taxes and fix the finances of social programs such as Medicaid.

House Republicans refused to vote to raise the nation's borrowing limit unless Obama agreed to an equivalent roster of spending cuts.

The standoff caused turmoil in the stock market and led the rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the nation's credit rating for the first time ever.

Congress and Obama averted a shutdown with an agreement that tried to dump the big decisions about spending and taxes to a so-called "budget supercommittee."

Against Boehner's better judgment, House Republicans insisted any bill to keep the government running must also defund or in some way hobble Obama's landmark health care overhaul.

More than 800,000 federal workers were sent home, and polls show Republicans bore the brunt of the blame.

Boehner, who is Roman Catholic, tried for 20 years to get a pontiff to address Congress — something that had never happened before Thursday, when Boehner welcomed Pope Francis to the House chamber and stood with him on a Capitol balcony overlooking a cheering throng of tens of thousands.