Gerrymandering: A Plague on Democracy

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, last week yet another State returned to the era of gerrymandering, marking a further regression for democracy in America.

This entire redistricting war has been a total disaster for our country. What is more, it has been utterly pointless. As was predicted, neither side is really going to come out ahead. Every side has lost.

Meanwhile, the whole conflict that has spread from State to State to State has caused partisanship in this country to truly bubble over. It has destabilized representation across the country. It has further eroded trust in the fairness of our political process. It has further eroded the idea of representation and government by the people.

It is past time for Congress to take responsibility for the fairness of our own elections throughout this country. We can do that in two ways.

Number one is by passing my bill to end mid-decade redistricting. I introduced this last year, and it passed last year. We could have avoided this whole thing, but we can still pass it now to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Number two is by the time of the next Census when we are supposed to do redistricting, we can pass legislation to end gerrymandering in this country once and for all. The way I am proposing we do this is by setting up a truly independent commission in every State, much like California had before it was sidelined last year.

Mr. Speaker, gerrymandering is a plague on democracy, and it is well past time that the United States moves past it and ensures fair elections and fair representation for every citizen in our country. California's Economic Performance Review 2025

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, a new report titled: ``California's Economic Performance Review 2025'' paints an absolutely alarming picture of our State's current economic performance.

Just to give you a few of the highlights, or really lowlights, Mr. Speaker, California right now has the highest unemployment rate in the Nation at 5.5 percent with over 1 million unemployed workers.

There were 181,700 private-sector jobs lost in 2025 and 432,900 private-sector jobs lost in the last 3 years. Meanwhile, almost all of the actual job growth has come from government. There are now 1.9 unemployed workers per job opening in California. That is the worst ratio in the country, with layoffs and separations up by 57 percent in 2025.

Net business establishments in 2025 were down almost 90 percent since before Governor Newsom took office, and almost all of the new firms that were rated were sole proprietorships with almost no employees.

California, meanwhile, has the highest cost of living of any State, with 6 of the 10 most expensive metropolitan areas in the country. Electricity rates in our State are nearly double the rest of the country for homes and almost triple for industry. We also, of course, have the highest gas prices by far in the country.

California has the highest poverty rate in the Nation at 16.4 percent. California had 1.9 million residents lost to other States over the last 7 years, and that includes 409,000 workers lost in job-to-job migration over the last 5 years.

All this time, the budget grew by 68.2 percent since 2019, with a structural deficit that is now $20 billion to $35 billion annually.

By the way, there has been nearly a 50 percent drop in the number of high earners filing tax returns over $10 million just in the last 5 years, and that number is going to go up a lot with this entire wealth tax scheme that is being proposed right now.

Mr. Speaker, California is the greatest State in the country. We have more to offer than any State in the country. With our State's abundance of natural resources, its amazing companies, people, and culture, there is absolutely no reason we should not be outperforming every other State. Instead, we are underperforming every other State by a lot, to the detriment of our own citizens.

So I am, once again, calling upon leaders in Sacramento to chart a different course, one that is proworker, pro-opportunity, and progrowth. I am also encouraging those of us here in the House to look at what California has done wrong because it provides us a good roadmap of what we should be doing in order to get the economy and the cost of living right.

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