'I don't think there's any justification': GOP rep blasts Johnson for keeping House closed

17 October 2025

CNN host Kaitlan Collins and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) on CNN on October 17, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)

One Republican member of the House of Representatives is now directly calling out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for his continued refusal to gavel the House back in session.

On Friday, the Clerk of the House of Representatives read an announcement from Johnson that the period between October 20th and October 23rd would be designated as a "district work period," meaning the House would be conducting no official business for the fourth consecutive week. The soonest the House would gavel back into session would be October 27. The lower chamber of Congress hasn't been in session since September 19.

The House remaining closed for another week irked Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), who told CNN host Kaitlan Collins in a Friday night segment that he "would love for the House to be in session."

"I don'tthink there's any justificationfor the House being out ofsession," Kiley said. "... It'simportant to to note that thisis a decision that's been madeindependently of the decisionfor the government to shut down.And I am very much against thegovernment being shut down."

Kiley went on to attack Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for not agreeing to the Republican-written government funding bill the House passed in late September before gaveling out of session (which notably does not include an extension in Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring at the end of the year). However, he maintained that the impasse in the Senate is no excuse to keep the House closed.

"That's adecision that the speaker hasmade," Kiley said. "And in addition to all ofthe things we're supposed to bedoing in terms of marking uplegislation, in terms ofoversight, it also makes it alot harder for us to reach thesort of bipartisan agreementthat's going to be necessary toopen the government, again, ifthe House of Representativesisn't even there and isapparently just outindefinitely."

The California Republican told Collins that he had brought up his concerns with Johnson directly on several calls, and noted that "various members" had also made similar arguments to the speaker. He added that despite his public calls for the House to gavel back into session, it "really isn't even something that we should have to advocate for."

"I mean, the Housewas supposed to be in session each of the last three weeks.It's supposed to be in sessionnext week," he said. "We have scheduleddistrict work weeks, which arevery important. But that's notwhat these several weeks were.We had important things to takecare of. Give you one example:I'm the chair of the K-12 Education Subcommittee. We had ahearing that was supposed tohappen a couple of days ago onan important topic career,technical education, I thinkwould have been a great hearing.Didn't happen because weweren't there. And you can talkto any member on any committee.The House hasordinary business of the people it should be carrying out. Andthe fact that there's agovernment shutdown is not areason to suddenly neglect allof that."

Watch the full segment below:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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