John Boehner

WASHINGTON (January 3, 2013)—U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, won a second two-year term Thursday as speaker of the house with 220 votes, losing just a handful of votes in the Republican-controlled chamber.

The election of the speaker came as the House and Senate ushered in a new Congress Thursday.

Conservative activists had called on the House to oust Boehner in the wake of the passage of a budget bill aimed at averting a plunge off the so-called fiscal cliff, but the push failed.