U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) on Sunday was asked about House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) saying there’s no reason for the House to come back to session and that there should be no negotiations with Democrats during the federal government shutdown, which is entering its third week.
[Note: On Friday, Kiley announced “although Speaker Johnson has cancelled session yet again, I’ll be returning to DC. My door is open to anyone interested in making sure our troops get paid or working on everything else the House is neglecting. I’m also declining a paycheck until the shutdown is over.”]
Kiley said on Sunday, “There is no justification to shut everything down just because we’re in the midst of a government shutdown. In fact, the fact that there is a government shutdown is all the more reason we should be there in order to be doing everything we possibly can to get us out of this situation.”
New — GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley breaks with the speaker’s strategy of keeping House closed and not negotiating with Ds.
And says Grijalva should be sworn in
“There’s a duly elected member of Congress from that district, and she should be sworn in. I don’t know why this is an issue” pic.twitter.com/4A1O1slB9G
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 12, 2025
Note: Kiley voted for the “clean” CR the GOP put forth, although he said “it was the lesser of two evils.” Kiley also said that he doesn’t agree with the hardball tactics of Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “I think he’s being unreasonable,” Kiley said of Schumer’s stance.
The Congressman added: “But this is politics. Sometimes you have to work with people who you believe are being unreasonable in order to find the common ground that is best for the country. So as long as the House isn’t even there, that’s going to be very hard for us to do.”
Kiley also broke with Johnson regarding the delayed swearing in of newly-elected Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), saying Grijalva should be sworn in.
“There’s a duly elected member of Congress from that district, and she should be sworn in. I don’t know why this is an issue. The constituents in that district deserve a representative.”
He added with the shutdown headed into its third week: “They should swear her in the pro forma session as has been done before and as she’s asked before.”
Democratic elected officials representing Arizona — Rep. Yassamin Ansari and Sen. Mark Kelly — agree with Kiley. As seen below, on Sunday, the two Arizonans demonstrated that Grijalva’s office is still locked. Like others, they claim the reason why Johnson hasn’t sworn in Grijalva is because “she’d be the 218th signature to release the Epstein files.”
.@SenMarkKelly and I stopped by Adelita Grijalva’s office. Locked.@SpeakerJohnson still won’t swear her in because she’d be the 218th signature to release the Epstein files.
Arizona deserves representation, not a cover-up. pic.twitter.com/oYv2SNXQeM
— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@RepYassAnsari) October 12, 2025