The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Crescent City Times.com
By Kevin Kiley – February 16, 2026
After overturning Newsom’s insane gas-car ban, we’re now going to cut his insanely high gas tax. I am introducing the Gas Tax Reduction Act to place a national limit on state gas taxes. The bill will immediately save California drivers 21 cents per gallon.
This comes as we have the highest gas tax in the nation; as gas prices have risen 40 cents in California the last month; as two refineries are closing; as California is importing gas from the Bahamas. Yet Newsom just came out against my bill, saying: “No thank you, Congressman.”
Fortunately, he doesn’t get a vote. Indeed, he said the same thing about my High-Speed Rail bill and we beat him, cutting off all federal funding. Newsom is also now saying I shouldn’t criticize him for California’s rampant fraud because he somehow “stopped” $125 billion in fraud.
That, of course, is a made-up number. Newsom knows if the true scale of CA fraud comes to light, his presidential campaign is over. That’s why he’s terrified of the full GAO audit I’ve ordered and is surely alarmed I just told AG Bondi to make CA the focus of anti-fraud efforts.
We’re also about to see a state and federal investigation of Newsom’s “Next Generation 911 System” after I exposed the scandal in a Floor speech. Newsom charged us fees on our phone bill for six years, spent $450 million, then scrapped the project because the technology didn’t work.
Elsewhere, Rep Costa and I wrote a bipartisan letter calling for urgent action on our bill to detect and shut down illegal bio labs. The newly uncovered lab in Vegas was run by the same CCP-linked Chinese nationals as the one in California containing pathogens like HIV and Malaria.
Finally, I made the case for the Save Act on CNN just before the House passed it, noting that a dog successfully voted in a recent California election. This is not possible in almost any of the world’s other democracies. They require Voter ID.
Kevin Kiley is a California Congressman
