Rep. Mark Walker Bradley (Mark) Mark WalkerMike Johnson to run for vice chairman of House GOP conference The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by National Industries for the Blind - Woodward book revelations rock Washington The Hill's 12:30 Report — Presented by Facebook — Trump, Biden duel in final stretch | Vaccine trial on pause after recipient's 'potentially unexplained illness' | Biden visits Michigan | Trump campaign has 18 events in 11 states planned in the next week MORE (R-N.C.) has stepped down from the committee tasked with finding a new House chaplain after he said he wanted the next chaplain to have a family, USA Today reported on Sunday.

Walker’s comments were seen as discriminatory against Catholics because priests are unable to have families, the newspaper noted.

Walker’s spokesman, Jack Minor, told USA Today that Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) did not pressure the North Carolina lawmaker to remove himself from the search process.

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Sources told The Hill that Ryan pushed out the previous House chaplain, Patrick Conroy, who was the second Catholic to hold the post. Some Democrats have suggested that Ryan made the move because Conroy in a prayer last November urged lawmakers to seek equality ahead of a vote on the Republicans' tax bill.

Walker had said that he wanted a chaplain with a family because many lawmakers have to deal with being separated from their own families as part of their job.

The comments, according to Minor, were based “on initial feedback from his peers on preferences for a new House chaplain,” USA Today reported.

Minor noted that Walker had made it clear that such recommendations were not qualifications and did not mean he was excluding any faith or denomination.