Mike Kelly was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he has lived for more than 50 years. After graduating from Butler High School in 1966, Mike attended the University of Notre Dame on a football and academic scholarship. After college, Mike moved back to Butler to work at Kelly Chevrolet-Cadillac, Inc., a company founded by his father in the early 1950s. Mike took ownership of the dealership in the mid-1990s and expanded its operations to include Hyundai and KIA franchises.
“America’s belief in the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is what makes our nation the greatest in the world. As long as I represent the Third District of Pennsylvania, I will continue to defend these unalienable rights, and work to protect the most vulnerable among us, especially the unborn.”
I strongly believe in protecting the lives of the unborn. As Americans, our rights are derived from the self-evident, fundamental right to life, which promotes equal rights and equal protection for the unborn. I have long emphasized that promoting pro-life policies and protecting American family values would be a priority of mine while serving the Third District. I will continue working to promote a culture of life which, among other things, upholds and actively supports pro-life policies.
Since being elected to Congress, I have worked to defend life by:
I have also co-sponsored the following legislation:
For more information concerning my work and views on pro-life issues, please contact my Washington, DC office.
I look forward to your feedback.
“I look forward to working with the president and my colleagues in the House to put forward pro-growth policies that will create jobs and restore confidence in the American economy and in our political process”
Our nation is in the midst of one of the greatest economic downturns of our generation. With more than 23 million Americans out of work, underemployed, or who have given up looking for work altogether, we need to do everything in our power to create a climate for growth in order to get Americans working again.
We must enact common sense, pro-growth policies that give small businesses and entrepreneurs renewed confidence in our economy and remove the barriers to growth that stifle economic recovery and hamper job creation. These barriers include onerous government regulations that limit the private sector’s ability to invest, grow, and create jobs, as well as our nation’s $16 trillion debt which threatens our financial viability and our national security.
In order to address these barriers, I have and will continue to support an agenda that addresses our economic challenges, fosters innovation and investment, and helps job creators without raising taxes on working families and small business owners.
The issue of Education is important to our district and to my work in Congress.
Education reform is one of the biggest issues facing our country today. The federal government is spending massive amounts of money on K-12 education, but taxpayers are seeing little return on that investment. Pouring more federal money into the problem is not the solution and neither is imposing a one-size-fits-all solution. We need to focus on accountability, flexibility and local control, identifying and funding only what works, and expanding parental choice.
As a school board member, I saw that local control and community involvement were not to be underestimated. Giving communities the tools and the flexibility to address their particular needs not only encourages greater local involvement in education but also gives students an example of the ingenuity and perseverance that will serve them well in the world today.
We also need to expand our focus on higher education from just the traditional colleges. In a dynamic, global economy, Americans need to be able to train or retrain for the careers of the 21st century. Some will be able to pursue this through traditional colleges, but many will opt for the flexibility and practicality of schools with specialized, practical training. Supporting an array of educational facilities provides our workforce the greatest chance to compete and succeed in today's global economy.
The issue of Energy is important to our dis
Western Pennsylvania is rich in natural resources. It’s time we fully realize her total potential. I am dedicated to furthering policies that will encourage the development and utilization of the Marcellus shale that is being developed here in Western Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth is in a great position to become a leader in the development of natural gas and coal. I believe that by working with emerging industries, like the shale industry, these new sources of energy can provide an invaluable source of energy and provide sustainable, high-quality, high paying jobs for years to come.
As Congress develops an energy policy, the policy should include an “all of the above”approach to solving our energy needs--a policy that encourages development and increases all forms of American energy, from biofuels to coal and everything in between. By developing energy domestically, we can decrease our addiction to foreign oil, spur job growth, and keep Americans’ hard earned tax dollars out of the hands of foreign dictators.
Everyone can agree that America’s energy challenges do not have a single solution. By incorporating the growing capacity of solar and wind power with hydropower, clean coal, natural gas, nuclear power, biofuels, and oil, we can make environmentally responsible strides towards energy independence.
A brief summary of Rep. Kelly's support for a comprehensive domestic energy policy includes the following:
trict and to my work in Congress.
Congress is constitutionally mandated to provide for the common defense of our great nation. It was one of the reasons our Founding Fathers established the Constitution and it is a responsibility I take very seriously.
The world is an increasingly dangerous place and America’s enemies remain resolved in their fight against freedom and freedom-seeking nations. We need a strong and ready military to meet our vast national security needs and to be prepared to confront ongoing and future threats.
To strengthen our nation's armed forces, I have worked to:
In addition to strengthening our militiary, as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee I am working to ensure that America’s foreign policy is guided by and rooted in the values and democratic principles that make America a truly exceptional place. This includes engaging other nations in free and fair trade, and giving U.S. businesses and manufactueres greater access to global markets. Roughly 95 percent of the world's marketplace is outside of the U.S. It is essential to our nation's economic growth that we increase the number of our trading partners and open new markets to American products.
To that end, I have worked to:
In addition, I have supported a Middle East policy that strenthens our relationship with Israel and works to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon or becoming nuclear capable. This policy includes efforts to:
I am committed to reducing spending and decreasing the size of the federal government. Many existing government programs are duplicative, wasteful, outdated or unnecessary. It’s of the upmost importance that we bring the era of big government to an end.
As I considered where I could utilize my business background to tackle government spending issues and burdensome regulation that hinder job creation, the Oversight & Government Reform Committee was at the top of the list. Congress needs to be vigilant in ensuring that taxpayers’ money isn’t wasted on the unnecessary pet projects of legislators.
Through the Oversight & Government Reform Committee, I am tasked with offering real government reform measures and providing oversight over the entire executive branch. Pennsylvanians want their government to be held more accountable and deserve to know how their money is being spent.
The federal government can take steps toward paying down the national debt as we actively review existing spending programs and cutting unnecessary programs.
The following is a list of legislation I have supported to help reform the federal government and make it more accountable to the American people:
“Going forward, we will work on putting together commonsense solutions to reduce health care costs and make sure every American, regardless of preexisting conditions, has access to health care. But we are going to do it in a way that keeps the government out of the exam room and keeps a quality of care that Americans deserve.”
Two years ago, the president signed into law his signature health care bill, which will include the government takeover of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It is the largest expansion of the federal government in decades, and a majority of the American people want it stopped.
To that end, I have worked to repeal and defund this disastrous law before its full implementation, which will cost taxpayers more than a trillion dollars, take away $500 billion from Medicare, and force millions of people to lose their current health care coverage, putting them on government-run programs instead.
The House Republican majority has voted 29 times so far to repeal and defund, and dismantle President Obama’s health care law. Here’s an overview of these efforts:
The president’s health care law makes it harder for small businesses to hire new workers, jeopardizes seniors’ access to care, and adds to the debt that threatens job growth. It needs to go.
The majority of Americans do not like the president's health care law and want to see it overturned. I will continue to do my part to right the wrong that is Obamacare and replace it with commonsense, cost-effective solutions that will improve access to health care, protect consumer choice, and preserve the doctor-patient relationship by keeping government out of the examining room.
I am a strong believer in the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. It protects law-abiding citizens from the government’s infringement on our right to keep and bear arms. The Founding Fathers felt this right was important enough to make it part of the Bill of Rights, and held that the right to keep and bear arms was the personal and fundamental right of all citizens.
As part of my efforts to protect our Second Amendment rights, I have worked to:
I voted for H.R. 4089, the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012, a bill which will protect and strengthen opportunities for recreational hunting and shooting. This bill prevents federal agencies from imposing unnecessary regulations on law abiding sportsmen and sportswomen by:
Opening federal lands to recreational shooting,
Promoting hunting and fishing on federal land, and
Removing unfair federal regulations on the importation of legally hunted trophies.
H.R. 4089 passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 274 to 146.
I authored a bipartisan letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton signed by 130 members of the House of Representatives expressing concerns regarding the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) being negotiated by the UN. The letter warns the Administration against signing any treaty that would reduce our Second Amendment rights, weaken our domestic defense industrial base, facilitate the arming of terrorists, or make it more difficult for us to defend close allies such as Israel and Taiwan.
I delivered a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of Cabot Guns, in Cabot, PA. Cabot Guns won the National Rifle Association’s Pistol Championship in its first year of competition at the Camp Perry, the “World Series” of competitive pistol shooting.
I co-sponsored and voted for H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. This bill protects the rights of millions of gun owners by requiring states to recognize each others’ concealed firearms permits, just as states recognize each other’s drivers’ licenses and carry permits held by armored car guards. H.R. 822 passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 272 to 154.
Spending Cuts and Debt affect us all and dealing with these issues are important to my work in Congress.
Government spending has become dangerously overblown. I am fighting hard to bring business sense back into the nation’s budget. I do not believe that we can tax and spend our way to prosperity. I plan to work with my colleagues to create a new trend in government, one defined by responsible and cautious use of the taxpayer’s money. It is clear that the staggering national debt the United States has accumulated must be reversed. The reckless spending that has defined Washington in recent years is nothing short of generational theft.
The national debt of the United States is now in excess of $14 trillion dollars, equating to more than $40,000 for every citizen. The largest public owners of America’s national debt are now foreign governments. I will do everything in my power to stop our children’s future from being sold overseas to prop up programs that are unsustainable and duplicative. The era of big government needs to be put to an end.
As a small business owner, I understand the importance of respecting that government does not have the right to treat people’s money as an unlimited charge card. I will fight to lower taxes for working families and job creators, lessen crushing regulations, create an environment friendly for entrepreneurs and ensure that our workforce is given every opportunity to compete effectively.
The issue of Tax Reform affects all of us and dealing with it is an important part of my work in Congress.
By bringing a common sense approach to government, I will fight hard to lower taxes for our working families and job creators. I believe that taxpayers are in the best possible position to determine how to spend their own money, not bureaucrats in Washington. It is critical that Congress finds ways to reduce taxes upon individuals, as well as the compliance costs associated with filling out complex and lengthy forms. Tax revenue is generated by ensuring people are working and profitable. It should not come from raising tax rates. Accordingly, I have made a promise to my constituents that I will never vote for a tax increase.
Bills that I’m a co-sponsor of:
My constituents sent me to Washington to advocate for pro-growth economic policies that will move our nation in the right direction. This is a crucial issue for businesses in the 3rd District and across America. Manufacturers are closing shop or cutting jobs because of the penalizing and unfair trade policies that impact our ability to compete in the global markets. Congress must enact pro-growth economic policies that will move the nation in the right direction. Unfair trade practices, unenforced trade policies, and burdensome regulatory barriers weaken American industries, kill jobs, and hurt consumers.
I believe that American businesses produce the finest goods and services in the world. We are second to none in the global marketplace – provided that the rules of the game are fair. Drawing from my rich experience as a small business owner working with South Korean car makers Kia and Hyundai, I am working towards practical solutions that help American businesses and workers to complete globally. Thus, I support laws that foster dynamic, vibrant businesses and laws that allow goods and services to flow freely to our valued global trade partners.
Bills I am supporting:
Free Trade Agreements: I urge the President to send all three free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama to the Congress for immediate approval. These completed agreements have languished on the President’s desk for years. Yet while we hesitate, other countries have seized the day and put into effect their own free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama, crippling the ability of American businesses to compete in these markets. Now is the time to open new opportunities for American businesses overseas.
I am grateful to all those who have served in our armed forces, and to the brave men and women who are currently serving our country in the global war on terror. The people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are proud to count one million veterans as friends, family, and neighbors. All who have served have sacrificed, and we owe our liberty and freedom to our veterans.
I am committed to serving our veterans. I am working to ensure that our veterans receive the benefits and the care that they so greatly deserve. I am pleased to work with our two local VA hospitals, the Clarion County VA Outpatient Clinic and VA Butler Healthcare, to provide quality care to veterans in the 3rd District. I am always interested in making improvements to the VA healthcare system to make the claims process efficient for our veterans, and to adjusting and improving the delivery of healthcare to fit the changing healthcare needs of veterans today.
I am also committed to serving veterans by helping them to obtain job training and education at our great colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, to empower them to advance their careers and provide for their families. We are eternally grateful to our veterans and it is my goal to see to it that they have the services they need to lead healthy and productive lives after their time in the military is complete.
In my efforts to better serve our veterans, I have worked to:
I also voted for:
We have passed bills that let our veterans know that we don’t take them or the great sacrifices they’ve made for granted, and that we will never abandon them in their time of need, just as they have never abandoned us in ours
Unfortunately, extreme partisanship won the day in September when Speaker House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives would begin an impeachment inquiry against the President of the United States.
The basis for their impeachment inquiry is a whistleblower complaint that makes allegations about the president's conduct on a phone call with the president of Ukraine. You can read them here:
President Donald Trump's Conversation with the Ukrainian President