| | | The Lonely House Republican Still Coming to Work During the Shutdown
Representative Kevin Kiley of California has criticized his own party for keeping the House out of session during the shutdown. He is battling boredom and disaffection as the stalemate drags on.
nytimes.com
It was 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the empty Capitol, 14 days into the government shutdown, and Representative Kevin Kiley of California, one of the few House Republicans who showed up for work in Washington this week, was excited that he finally had something to do.
He strode through the underground tunnel connecting the Rayburn House Office Building to the House chamber to attend a pro forma session, the two-minute-long routine meeting that is required every three days during a recess.
As congressional doings go, this was underwhelming. The session was gaveled in and then immediately gaveled out, with no business conducted. Few of Mr. Kiley’s colleagues were there; by his count, he laid eyes on a total of 11 House Republicans throughout the day.
Still, it was a highlight in Mr. Kiley’s otherwise empty hours.
“This is the big excitement here!” he said. “It’s the only thing on the calendar!”
Mr. Kiley, 40, a politically vulnerable, center-leaning Republican in a rightward-lurching conference, decided to show up to work as a one-man protest against Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to send the House home indefinitely as the government shutdown drags on with no end in sight.
He said he thought lawmakers should be in Washington working on the appropriations bills they still need to pass, holding congressional hearings and marking up legislation — not back home on an unplanned hiatus for which staff did not even have enough lead time to pack with district events or constituent meetings.
“We’re supposed to be here — this is what the schedule said,” Mr. Kiley said during an interview in his office after the brief excitement of the pro forma session. “We were supposed to be here two weeks ago, and last week and this week.”
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