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The News Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif, said Wednesday he does not plan to caucus with Republicans next year if he is reelected to the House as an independent. In an interview with Semafor’s Nicholas Wu at the Youth Wellbeing Forum, Kiley said he is working to change House rules that require independent members to affiliate with a party in order to sit on committees. He currently caucuses with Republicans for committee purposes. “I’m an independent member now, and yet the rules of the House force me to say, okay, as a formality, for the purposes of committee assignments, I’m in conference with one side or the other,” Kiley said during the joint interview with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore. “The committee seats should belong to the American people, and you shouldn’t be denied a seat on committees just because you’re an independent member,” he added. Know More Wednesday’s event in Washington also touched on a leadership contest among House Democrats on the Education and Workforce Committee, where Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., is challenging Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., for the top Democratic position on the House Education and Workforce Committee. Asked whether she would take a side, Bonamici declined to back Scott saying “I’m just weighing my options right now and talking to people in the committee.” Scott, who is 79 years old, has held the top committee role for six terms. Bonamici may decide to run herself for the top Democratic slot on the panel, a person familiar with her thinking later told Semafor. The lawmakers — both of whom are members of the House education panel — also discussed broader education policy goals. Kiley criticized efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education, calling the move “fundamentally misguided.” “When it comes to the core mission of supporting educational excellence across the country, to say that we’re just not going to have this done in the Department of Education anymore, and we’re going to send it to some other department makes absolutely no sense to me,” Kiley said. Bonamici said she plans to introduce a bill as soon as Thursday aimed at updating federal education policy to better address the needs of today’s students, including through project-based learning, arts education, and students’ behavioral health needs. “Our education policy has not kept up with the needs of today’s youth,” Bonamici said. “We need a well-rounded education.” Kiley discussed his work on the High-Quality Charter Schools Act, which would create a federal tax credit for charitable contributions to nonprofit charter-school organizations. Nicholas Wu contributed reporting.
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