Kevin Kiley

Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., broke with President Donald Trump's standoff over a bipartisan housing package Sunday, telling "Wake Up America Weekend" on Newsmax that the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act will become law despite Trump's refusal to sign it until Congress passes the SAVE America Act.

The bill cleared the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32 last week, but Trump canceled a Capitol signing ceremony on June 24 and tied his signature to the voter-ID measure now stalled in the Senate.

The interview, which aired the same day the Senate left town for a recess running through July 12, exposed a widening divide between Trump and Republican lawmakers eager to claim an affordability win heading into the midterms.

Kiley said the legislation amounted to a rare bipartisan success on the country's leading economic concern and should not be held hostage to an unrelated fight.

"We have to address affordability head-on, and California has just about the highest housing costs in the country," he said.

He called the housing measure "a good thing Congress had done in a bipartisan way to tackle the leading issue facing the country," and predicted it "is going to be signed into law."

He said he supported the SAVE America Act and described himself as a co-sponsor, but argued that "whatever your view is on these other issues" it should not derail housing relief.

The SAVE America Act cleared the House 218-213 in February and has since stalled in the Senate, where it lacks the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

If the Senate fails to act, Kiley said, Californians will get their own chance in November.

The California Voter Identification and Voter List Maintenance Requirements Initiative qualified for the Nov. 3 ballot in April after backers submitted more than 1.3 million signatures, with state officials projecting that more than 962,000 would be valid.

Kiley framed the measure as bringing California "in line with just about every other state and just about every other country in the world."

Kiley, who left the Republican Party in March to run for reelection as an independent in California's redrawn 6th District, reserved his sharpest criticism for Sacramento.

He said California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers are preparing to sign "billions of dollars more in new taxes into law" and to raise the state's gas tax, when it's already by far the highest in the country.

California's excise tax climbs to 63.4 cents per gallon July 1, the nation's highest.

"It's not like we get some beautiful, sterling, you know, drivable roads out of this. We have just about the worst roads in the country, too," Kiley said.

Under the Constitution, the housing bill can become law without Trump's signature 10 days after presentment, excluding Sundays, if Congress remains in session.

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