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Mina Kim: From KQED, welcome to Forum. I’m Mina Kim.
The consequences of the record-long government shutdown are intensifying nationwide — especially in California, with so many federal workers. Families who rely on SNAP fear going hungry as they’re left to wonder when and how much food aid will come. Federal employees are going without pay, with the White House casting doubt on whether they will be compensated even after the shutdown ends. Transportation officials are warning of mass flight cancellations.
Meanwhile, people getting health coverage through the Affordable Care Act are receiving notices this week of major premium increases. Rocklin Congressman, Republican Kevin Kiley, says he and Democratic Congressman Sam Liccardo of San Jose are crafting a compromise solution. He joins me now. Welcome to Forum, Congressman Kiley.
Kevin Kiley: Thanks very much for having me.
Mina Kim: So what framework are you proposing to end the shutdown with Congressman Liccardo?
Kevin Kiley: One of the big issues that has emerged here is the extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire and could lead to a huge increase in health care costs for millions of Americans — something that I certainly don’t want to see, and I think folks on both sides of the aisle don’t want to see either.
So Congressman Liccardo and I have worked on a bipartisan framework to try to reach a compromise on that issue. The main elements are that it would be a limited-duration extension, that we’d have significant cost controls, and that we’d have protections against improper payments. We’re in the process now of putting that into the form of legislation.
Mina Kim: So you’d want a limited extension — you don’t support making them permanent?
Kevin Kiley: I don’t think there are the votes in either chamber for any permanent extension. The idea is to have a temporary extension to ensure there isn’t a cliff where people suddenly lose access to those benefits. In the meantime, once the extension is in effect, we can work on ways to lower health care costs across the board.
Mina Kim: You said you’re not the only one who would support extending the credits, but extending the credits before an agreement on the shutdown is reached — are you hearing signs of that from House Republicans?
Kevin Kiley: The ordering of events doesn’t really matter, as far as I’m concerned. The important thing is to rebuild trust. One proposal right now is for an agreement guaranteeing a vote on this issue.
I think the shutdown is having such terrible consequences for so many people that we just need to do whatever we can to get this over with as quickly as possible. So if the ACA subsidies are a potential pathway out — if we can get halfway to a deal on that as a way out of the shutdown — we should pursue that in every way we can.
Mina Kim: Yeah, people really are experiencing tremendous impacts, as you say. You’ve been critical of some of the ways your party has handled the situation — including its willingness to let SNAP benefits lapse. You even co-sponsored legislation to keep SNAP in place during the shutdown?
Kevin Kiley: That’s right. The idea that people who rely on food assistance to feed themselves and their families aren’t getting it because of politicians’ failure in Washington, D.C. to overcome partisan divisions — I think that explains why Congress right now has a 13 percent approval rating.
The bill I co-sponsored is pretty simple. It says that even if there’s a government shutdown — and granted, the best solution is to simply end it — people should still get their SNAP benefits. That’s something people really can’t live without.
Mina Kim: The USDA is now saying they’ll be able to cover 65 percent of SNAP benefits, but we’re also hearing it could take several weeks — and the administration needed a court order to start bringing some benefits back to people. Does that sit right with you — 65 percent, weeks from now potentially?
Kevin Kiley: No, absolutely not. The problem is that the contingency fund being tapped into now just doesn’t have enough money for full benefits even for a month. I’ve said that to the extent the president has legal authority to get whatever benefits he can to people now, that’s the right thing to do.
But ultimately, to ensure people continue to receive the full benefits they rely on, we have to open the government or, short of that, pass the bill I’m sponsoring to provide an appropriation for benefits.
Mina Kim: But with the House in recess, the bill you’re sponsoring — the legislation tied to your framework with Sam Liccardo — won’t be heard, right?
Kevin Kiley: Exactly. That’s why it’s so unacceptable to me that the House of Representatives has now been recessed for six consecutive weeks. In fact, not just recessed — sessions that were planned have been canceled.
I don’t think this has been the Speaker of the House’s finest hour — having the House not here during this critical period. I’m in D.C., by the way. I came back to try to work across the aisle to find a way out of this mess.
For the House not only to be absent but to cancel every hearing, every markup of legislation, everything else we had planned — I think it’s just a total institutional failure.
Mina Kim: How has Speaker Johnson justified this to you? I’m sure you’ve had conversations with him to make your feelings known.
Kevin Kiley: I have. I’ve talked to him at some length, and I don’t want to share private conversations, but I’ll tell you this — I haven’t gotten an explanation that makes any sense to me.
The rationale the speaker has given is that the Senate refuses to open the government. Granted, I did vote for the continuing resolution the House passed, and I wish the Senate would just pass that to open the government. But sometimes in politics, you have to find a way to work with people who have a different position from you to find common ground that’s best for the country.
Separate and apart from that, the Senate’s decision not to pass the CR and the fact that we are in a government shutdown is no reason for the House of Representatives to cancel all its business. That’s all the more reason the House should be here, doing everything it can to get the government back open.
Mina Kim: You’ve even called Speaker Johnson’s refusal to swear in Democratic congressmember-elect Grijalva of Arizona totally unacceptable. He’s sworn people in during recesses before, right?
Kevin Kiley: Yeah, that really bothers me. She was elected six weeks ago, and this is pretty basic — you get elected, you get sworn in, you represent your district.
For several weeks now, that district has been without a representative they chose. It’s not her fault the House isn’t in session — it’s the speaker who canceled all these weeks. And as you just mentioned, even if we’re not in session, she could still be sworn in.
Mina Kim: We’re talking with Congressman Kevin Kiley, Republican representing California’s Third Congressional District — based in Rocklin and spanning Sacramento County, the Sierra Nevada, and most of the California–Nevada border.
So Congressman Kiley, are you at a point where you’re going to do more than voice your frustration and try to hold Speaker Johnson accountable?
Kevin Kiley: I’ve tried to do that in every way I can. I’ve put forward legislation, I’ve been very critical of how he’s handled this entire situation. I’ve also been critical of how he’s handled redistricting. Even today, he made comments cheering on this “redistricting war” that I think is terrible for the country. I’m trying to push back however I can.
Mina Kim: Republicans have a slim majority — giving you and like-minded Republicans the power to threaten Johnson’s position as speaker. Is that something you’ve considered?
Kevin Kiley: That’s not a question for right now. For one good reason — if you actually vacate a speaker, that shuts down the House of Representatives itself. That’s not a good remedy for the House being shut down.
We dealt with this when Johnson first became speaker — Kevin McCarthy was vacated and the House was ground to a halt for three weeks. So that’s not the right remedy at this point. I’m just trying to use whatever tools I have — persuasion, mainly — to get him to start doing the right thing.
Mina Kim: At what point do you think this unacceptable situation will lead you to act more forcefully?
Kevin Kiley: Really, the only option is when there’s a new Congress and you have an opportunity to choose a new speaker. It’s rare for a speaker not to serve a full term, and House rules make that difficult.
But I’m doing everything I can as a sitting member to work in a bipartisan way — separate from trying to convince the speaker — because there are tools where, if you have enough bipartisan support, you can move things forward in the House even if the speaker isn’t for it.
Mina Kim: Speaker Johnson also refused to bring your mid-decade redistricting bill to the floor — that would have stopped mid-decade redistricting. Prop 50 has now passed decisively, and your district, Congressman Kiley, is changing radically. Will you run in the newly drawn District 3 or another district?
Kevin Kiley: I will be running for reelection, yes. I haven’t decided exactly where I’ll land — my current district has been chopped into six different pieces. So it’s a question of which slice of my current district I’ll go with — which constituents I’ll continue to represent.
That’s a hard question. I’ll be having conversations with folks throughout my district in the weeks ahead to figure that out.
But I do think I’ll be able to win reelection even though the district has changed — because that’s the fundamental flaw with gerrymandering. It assumes politicians can just move lines around on a map and dictate the outcome they want. But voters are smarter than that. They look beyond party labels.
Since I’ve been elected, I’ve worked to deliver results that matter for my communities — on issues without a particularly partisan balance. I’ve worked on alleviating traffic, passed legislation to protect Lake Tahoe and keep Tahoe blue.
In the last election, I actually got more crossover votes than almost anyone in the country — the second most of any competitive race — meaning people who voted for Kamala Harris for president but voted for me for representative.
Mina Kim: The results from this past election — a lot of people are saying they show widespread dissatisfaction not just with Congress’s approval rating but also with the executive branch, since the election was framed as a referendum on President Trump’s actions in his first nine months. How are you feeling about the election results? What message should Republicans take from them?
Kevin Kiley: There are certainly a lot of people who feel that way — and a lot who feel differently. I think the biggest takeaway is that the country is very divided right now, and that’s a bad thing.
These issues we’ve been talking about — the redistricting war, the government shutdown — underscore how partisan divisions have reached peak levels. Excessive partisanship is one of the biggest challenges we face as a country.
I was elected promising to be an independent voice for my district, to fight for all Californians, and to try to overcome the partisan divisions harming the country. That mission is more important now than ever.
Mina Kim: Congressman Kevin Kiley, representing California’s Third Congressional District based in Rocklin — thank you so much for talking with us.
Kevin Kiley: Of course. Thanks for having me.
Mina Kim: And listeners, we’ll have more about the status of negotiations to reopen the government after the break. Stay with us. You’re listening to Forum. I’m Mina Kim.
