WASHINGTON — Kevin Kiley came to work on Tuesday but there wasn’t much to do.
Kiley is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, which hasn’t been open for business since last month as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) keeps lawmakers home during a government shutdown.
Kiley intended his presence as a message to Johnson that the House should be in session, something he said on social media last week. He stood on the House floor on Tuesday as another Republican banged the gavel to close out a “pro forma” session that lasted two minutes.
“God, I wanted to at least remember what the floor looked like,” Kiley told HuffPost afterward. “It’s been almost a month that we’ve been out of session. We’ve been out of session 71 out of 83 days.”
Kiley is one of a few voices of dissent among House Republicans against Johnson’s strategy of keeping the House shut down in order to pressure Senate Democrats into voting for a government funding bill that the House approved in September. Except for certain essential functions, federal agencies shut down earlier this month after Senate Democrats voted against the bill, saying it should include an extension of health insurance subsidies.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has hammered Republicans for being “on vacation” during the shutdown. Polls suggest voters are more likely to blame Republicans for the shutdown, and some Republicans, including Kiley, have said the House should return.
Johnson has said his doubters are lonely.
“I have heard criticism from, I think, three members on our conference call, and since our conference calls leak and are always spun, that’s the fact,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “You can poll individual House Republicans, maybe you should, and 98.7% of them will tell you this is the right thing.”
Dozens of Democrats have remained in Washington, staging press conferences and maintaining a presence on the House floor during the pro forma sessions, which are done to avoid holding formal votes on adjourning.
On Tuesday, Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), who tried to speak on the House floor during the pro forma but was ignored, said he was glad Kiley came around.
“This is the time for us to be here. Other business can be done, even if there’s ongoing discussions about a negotiation ending a shutdown,” Stanton told HuffPost. “There’s lots of other things we can be voting on. We could be doing hearings. We could be advancing important bills.”
Still, Kiley said he did not agree with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has led Senate Democrats in voting against the House-passed “continuing resolution,” often known as a CR.
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“I don’t agree with what Chuck Schumer is doing,” Kiley said. “I wish the Senate would just pass that CR, and we could immediately reopen the government. I think that’s the reasonable thing to do. But clearly that isn’t happening. And so sometimes you have to, in politics, work with people that you think are not acting reasonably in order to do what’s best for the country.”