California is the Exact Opposite of A Model of Efficiency

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to make a statement about efficiency in government because there was a statement from the Governor of my State that many of us found quite surprising where he recently said that long before there was DOGE, California was already streamlining government to be more efficient, responsive, and accountable. Apparently, California being a model of efficiency, in the Governor's view.

This came as a surprise to many of us because, in the course of just 5 years during Governor Newsom's tenure, the State budget increased by $124 billion. That is over a 50 percent increase in spending without really any measurable improvement in government performance when you look at California ranking first in the Nation in homelessness, poverty, unemployment, having some of the worst roads, and some of the worst achievement gaps in our schools.

I will highlight just a few examples that I think are particularly revealing when it comes to the low quality of government service that citizens of California are receiving and also, to some extent, the lessons that we can draw from here at the Federal level where I think continuing to improve the quality of government service, giving taxpayers a higher return on their tax dollars remains a vital imperative.

Remember, the Governor said that California is a model of efficiency. His exact words: ``California is already streamlining government to be more efficient, responsive, and accountable.''

Apparently, this includes a $128 billion bullet train that still shows no signs of coming into existence. Now, that is the estimated total cost. The amount that has already been spent is somewhere in the neighborhood of $16 billion, $17 billion, but we are now 18 years into this thing and not a single bit of track has been laid despite all of this massive spending. The New York Times has estimated that the project isn't even on track to be finished this century.

Another example is that the State auditor in California found that the State spent $24 billion to combat homelessness and completely lost track of the money. They couldn't say where it went. They couldn't say what impact it had on outcomes. There were no metrics.

During the time that this spending occurred, homelessness in California absolutely skyrocketed to the extent that the State has about half of the total unsheltered homeless in the entire country.

The State also squandered $32 billion at a minimum on unemployment fraud. What is going on in Minnesota is small potatoes compared to what we witnessed in California during the COVID years where the State failed to take basic fraud protection measures that other States had taken, and as a result, fraudsters were easily able to purloin the State Treasury and use those billions to fund further criminal activities.

Now, I say that there are lessons for the Federal Government because during the last administration, the labor secretary in California most responsible for that entire fiasco was actually nominated to be the Secretary of Labor here in Washington, D.C., although never confirmed by the Senate, so to some extent the lesson was learned.

We have recent reports just in the last couple weeks that this $650 million 911 system that the State has been charging Californians on their phone bill for, for several years now, is being scraped entirely because the technology doesn't work. They spent $650 million building this so-called next generation 911 system--and our system does very much need to be updated--but because the State couldn't manage to get the technology right, it is all going to waste. Those funds will never be recovered and our 911 system remains antiquated as a result. Bear in mind, Sacramento is a stone's throw from Silicon Valley where the technology that is required here is fairly rudimentary in terms of what is needed.

I would just mention one final example which is the California State Capitol itself. Our Governor has had a lot to say about certain renovations going on at the White House, yet the California State legislature approved several years ago a $1.2 billion renovation of the State capitol itself.

I voted against that measure, by the way, but now the cost of that seems to have ballooned and we don't know even by how much because the State is refusing to say. Despite the persistent efforts of local journalists to get an answer and other legislators as to how much this project is costing our taxpayers, they won't even say how much. However, we have gotten some hints of some of the measures that the project leaders have taken such as shipping stones to Italy in order to be treated and refined. It does not seem that this particular project is exactly a model of efficiency either.

Mr. Speaker, I bring these examples up to highlight the need for reform in my home State, to reorient the way our government works toward a paradigm of citizen service, because we see corruption and incompetence and special interests and a whole host of other agendas that stand in the way of the use of tax dollars to actually serve our citizens. Indeed, California is the exact opposite of a model of efficiency as we sacrifice the most and get the least in return.

I will continue to do everything I can to change that paradigm in California as well as to find ways to learn from it and to reorient our Federal Government toward a model of citizen service and efficiency, as well. Legislation to Stop Insider Trading

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, this week, I signed a discharge petition to stop insider trading, to ban stock trading by Members of Congress. I have been a cosponsor of this measure offered by my colleague from Florida, Anna Paulina Luna. We have gotten a number of bipartisan cosponsors for it, yet the bill has not moved. It has not been brought to the floor by House leadership.

I have signed this discharge petition, which is a legislative mechanism by which the Members of the House can bring a bill directly to the floor without the blessing of leadership. I have not been particularly inclined to sign these petitions in my first couple of years here in the House, but I have come to the view that they have become more necessary given the House's somewhat diminished role in recent months in terms of actually driving policy forward.

I have also signed a couple of other petitions related to the healthcare reforms that we are seeking to advance. I was particularly concerned when I heard the Speaker himself suggest that he might try to stop discharge petitions from happening altogether, which would be a terrible idea. It would mean that the House is no longer truly a majoritarian institution.

Affirming the value of discharge petitions and bringing to the floor a bill to ban trading by Members of Congress are both important steps toward restoring trust in this institution. Let's face it, Congress is not held in particularly high esteem by the American public right now. I have seen recent polls showing that Congress' approval rating is around 15 percent. In many ways, that reputation is well deserved.

This is a simple measure that we can take that would at least restore a little bit of trust and be a step in the direction of good government. I am hoping that it will continue to get the requisite signatures, short of leadership agreeing to bring it to the floor, and then we can get it passed and signed into law. Advocating to End Redistricting War

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise again today to advocate for an end to the redistricting war that has been cascading across the country.

I have introduced legislation that would say we should not have mid- decade redistricting. It should not be done in any State. I opposed what happened in Texas to re-gerrymander that State in the middle of the decade, and I opposed what happened in California. I opposed the efforts that are afoot as well in other States, and I applaud the decision by the Indiana State Senate to not move forward with a mid- decade gerrymander in a fairly overwhelming vote yesterday.

The fact is that gerrymandering is an affront to representative government and democracy. What we are seeing right now runs against the desires of Members of this body on both sides of the aisle and certainly runs contrary to what is in the interest of the country.

I have called upon the leadership in the House for months to bring this bill to the floor or to otherwise reach an armistice in this redistricting war. I believe it was a failure of leadership, frankly, on both sides, to allow this to happen.

As I warned months ago, the whole thing is basically turning out to be a wash. If you look at the various election forecasters, they say, yes, you are probably not going to see either side really gain much.

All of this effort, all of this money, all of this political capital spent redrawing maps, upending the districts of dozens of our Members on both sides of the aisle, and to what end? Nothing good is coming from it.

Maybe if the Speaker--and I cannot let the minority leader off the hook either because he has been actively involved in these efforts--had been more focused on, let's say, healthcare policy than trying to redraw district maps, we wouldn't be in a position where we are now 3 weeks away from Americans seeing a massive increase in healthcare costs.

I am again calling for my bill to ban mid-decade redistricting to be brought to the floor for a vote. I am also working on legislation to end gerrymandering in this country, once and for all, by ensuring each State has an independent commission, much like the one that we had in California until recently. I think if we can take that step to end gerrymandering, to have fair maps across the country, then it will restore power where it belongs, and that is to the voters themselves. Need for Higher-Performing Schools

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, as chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, which covers K-12 education, I like to have the opportunity to go and visit high-performing schools, to see the lessons that we could learn.

This morning, I had the chance to visit a KIPP school, the Knowledge is Power Program here in Washington, D.C. There are 20 KIPP schools in D.C. There are many, many more all across the country, including many in California.

This is a truly high-performing charter school network that tends to enroll students who are below the poverty level, that operates in underserved communities, and that has outstanding results by any measure--by student test scores, by graduation rates, by the number of students who go to college.

They really have just been knocking it out of the park for years, much like Success Academy, which operates in New York City. I had the chance to visit one of their campuses a couple of months ago. If they were considered their own school district, they would literally be the highest performing district in the State of New York.

These examples of success are, unfortunately, not the norm when it comes to public education in America today and, in particular, in my State of California. The latest Nation's Report Card showed that student achievement is at an all-time low in this country. We have not bounced back to even where we were prior to the COVID years. We continue to fall behind our peer nations in terms of the level of achievement for our students.

In California, in particular, we have seen, over the course of the last several years, almost $40 billion more that is now spent on an annual basis on education. What do we have to show for it? UC San Diego, which is a pretty high-ranking school, recently came out and said that their incoming students are not prepared to do basic math, even the most basic math. They have now had to put one out of every eight students into remedial math courses. They have had to expand the remedial courses they offer to make them even more remedial.

That is the result of a State like California that has done everything possible to quash high-performing charter schools, like the ones I just mentioned, Success Academy and KIPP, and instead support and prop up a failing education model: the idea that you are assigned to one school in your ZIP Code, whether it is good or bad, whether it teaches students to read and do math or not.

In the subcommittee that I have the honor to chair, we have been focusing on both the problems and potential solutions for public education in America. I think there is a great deal to learn from schools like KIPP and Success Academy, which set high expectations for students, teach literacy and numeracy the way that it is supposed to be taught, have high levels and expectations for their teachers and help prepare them as they need to be prepared when it comes to professional development, and focus like a laser on student achievement, engaging parents, and everything that comes with giving students access to a quality education.

Schools like these show that every child in this country can indeed succeed, and we need to make it a matter of great urgency to make sure that every child in America has that opportunity. Assuring Timely Representation in the House

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I will be introducing in the House the Right to Representation Act, a measure that has become necessary in order to assure that districts in this country are not denied representation here in the House.

We recently had a period of time in which a newly elected Member of the House from Arizona was not seated as a Member for week after week for what I believe was a record period of time. This was despite the fact that she had won her election, the election had been certified, and the district was going without representation until she was seated.

The House of Representatives was not here during that time, which was itself a big problem. The House canceled its sessions for 6 weeks on end while the government was shut down. Nevertheless, this Member, Mrs. Grijalva from Arizona, could have been sworn in during what is called a pro forma session.

I think that this is simply wrong. I think it is wrong she had to wait over a month, I believe, after she should have been sworn in to actually have the opportunity to begin representing her constituents.

I don't want to see anything like this happen again, regardless of which party controls the House and regardless of which party the Member who is waiting to be sworn in represents.

My bill is very simple. It would simply say that after an individual has prevailed in a special election, then they have the right to be sworn in on the next legislative day, whether that is a pro forma session or a regular session.

I think this is a commonsense measure and will ensure that what we just saw with the Representative from Arizona doesn't happen in this Chamber again. Congratulating Chief Brian Estes

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