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Any chance of a quick and bloodless transition to a new slate of GOP leaders ended Monday when outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) postponed elections for the party’s No. 2 and No. 3 posts for weeks pending the outcome of the speaker’s race — which itself remains in doubt. Closed-door, secret-ballot elections for all three posts — to nominate a speaker ahead of a decisive floor vote of the entire House, and to select a majority leader and party whip — had been set for Thursday amid the widespread presumption that Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) would claim the speaker’s chair. (DeBonis, 10/5)

A top federal official on Monday made a case for preserving the little-known Agency for Healthcare Resources and Quality health agency, which focuses on improving the practice of medicine, and rejecting efforts by House Republican appropriators to terminate the agency in order to gain flexibility in a tight budget year. "Your work is not a nicety, " Mary Wakefield, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a Monday agency conference attended by many of its staff members. "Your work is a necessity." (Young, 10/5)