California GOP Rep. Kelly voted against Trump’s tariffs on Canada

from Maya S. MillerCalMatters

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California Rep. Kevin Kiley of Roseville was among a handful of House Republicans this week who formally opposed President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

He also defied House Republican leadership by voting against a procedural proposal that would have suppressed all votes on Trump’s emergency tariffs until August.

While his actions may seem chivalrous on the surface, Kailey has been working overtime to appeal to independent and Democratic voters since his district was dramatically redrawn by the pro-Democrat gerrymander that voters approved in November of passage of Proposition 50.

He has not yet declared which congressional district he will seek re-election in, instead choosing to eliminate options one by one in a game-show-style ritual that political reporters have compared to “The Bachelor” or “Survivor.”

For more than a year, House Speaker Mike Johnson has been quietly using calendar tricks to shield his members from tough votes that could come back to haunt them on Election Day.

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump used to impose some of his tariffs last year, any member of the House can challenge an emergency by filing a resolution that must receive a vote within 15 days. Congress is also responsible for reassessing national emergencies every six months.

Through clever language attached to the end of procedural bills known as “rules,” which essentially set the parameters for debate on the legislation, GOP leaders change the definition of “day” to extend well beyond the traditional 24 hours, sometimes extending a legislative day by several months.

Kelly said Thursday that preventing Congress from reassessing the emergency constituted an “abuse” of congressional procedure, saying members were being asked to “legislate a fiction” by declaring a day not really a day.

He said the House Republican leadership’s orders to vote for the bill were “contrary to every principle I’ve ever stood for” and that he refused to surrender his own power as a member just to appease his party leadership or the president.

“It is in the national interest that important issues of economic policy and national security policy be debated by the House of Representatives,” Kylie said in a speech from the floor. “That’s what we’re here for.”

A spokesperson for Kylie did not immediately respond to a message requesting an interview.

Playing with legislative time is an old congressional tactic used by both parties, but Johnson’s efforts to freeze time are more obvious and longer lasting. Democrats condemned similar maneuvers by the GOP last year, for which Kiley voted.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.