Tenure
In 2010, Kinzinger signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.
Kinzinger sponsored the Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act of 2013. The legislation, which would make it easier for veterans with emergency medical technician training in the military to get civilian licenses to perform the same job outside of the military, passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote but was not voted upon by the Senate.
On June 5, 2014, Kinzinger introduced a bill (H.R. 4801; 113th Congress) which would require the United States Secretary of Energy to prepare a report on the effects that thermal insulation has on both energy consumption and systems for providing potable water in federal buildings. Kinzinger argued that "with the federal government being the single largest consumer of energy in the country, doing our best to maximize the potential savings from improved insulation systems is a commonsense step I think everybody can agree on."
Kinzinger was a member of both the Republican Study Committee and the Republican Main Street Partnership.
Kinzinger was ranked as the 40th most bipartisan member of the House during the 114th United States Congress (and the third most bipartisan member of the House from Illinois) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy, which ranks members of Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring how often each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member co-sponsors bills by members of the opposite party).
Kinzinger voted for the 2017 Republican healthcare legislation, which would have repealed major parts of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Kinzinger voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kinzinger was accused of stoking racial hatred by an Asian American op-ed writer for blaming China for the pandemic at a time that anti-Asian hate crimes and coronavirus-related discrimination were rising. Kinzinger authored and retweeted many tweets singling out China for blame. One such tweet was "Daily reminder: You are in your homes because #Chinahidthevirus."
According to journalist Jeremy W. Peters, Kinzinger had an uneasy feeling on the day of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and asked his wife not to attend the joint session to officially certify the election. He also told his office staff not to come to work that day and took his .380 caliber Ruger LCP to the Capitol and to the Rayburn House Office Building. Just after 2:18 p.m., Kinzinger received an email from the Capitol Police telling him to stay away from windows, close and lock doors, remain quiet, and silence all electronics. At this point Kinzinger barricaded the doors of his office and took out his gun.
On February 4, 2021, Kinzinger joined 10 other Republican House members voting with all voting Democrats to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her House Education and Labor Committee and House Budget Committee assignments in response to controversial political statements she had made.
In March 2021, Kinzinger was one of eight Republicans to join the House majority in passing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021.
On April 9, 2021, Kinzinger called for Matt Gaetz to resign while he was being investigated on sex trafficking charges.
On May 19, 2021, Kinzinger and 34 other Republican House members in the 117th Congress voted to create a National Commission to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol Complex, intended to probe the U.S. Capitol attack. They joined all 217 Democrats present to vote to establish such a body. After the Senate failed to support the national bipartisan commission due to a Republican filibuster, Kinzinger remained committed to the concept.
On July 1, 2021, Kinzinger voiced disdain about sanctions threatened by Republican leadership against Republican lawmakers who would participate in a House committee to investigate the Capitol attack. On July 25, he accepted Speaker Pelosi's appointment of him to the House Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack.
During a September 5, 2021, interview on CNN's State of the Union, Kinzinger said his party "desperately needs to tell the truth", that if the party pushes lies and conspiracy theories, it does not deserve to win Congressional majorities in the 2022 elections, that if they were "going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy, pushing division, and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority", and that it "is a pretty scary place to go in this world if we start using our power as a way to get the outcome that we want" in elections.
On October 29, 2021, Kinzinger announced that he would not seek reelection to Congress in 2022, after redistricting placed him and another Republican incumbent, Darin LaHood, in the same district. The redrawn district was geographically more his district than LaHood's, but Kinzinger opted to retire.
On November 5, 2021, Kinzinger was one of 13 House Republicans to break with their party and vote with a majority of Democrats for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
After leaving Congress, Kinzinger joined CNN as a senior political commentator on January 4, 2023.
On July 1, 2021, Kinzinger voiced disdain about sanctions threatened by Republican leadership against Republican lawmakers who would participate in a House committee to investigate the Capitol attack. After McCarthy rescinded his recommendations, Pelosi announced on July 25 that she had appointed Kinzinger to the committee. Kinzinger was one of the ten House Republicans who voted for Trump's second impeachment. As a member of the committee investigating the January 6 attack and related issues, Kinzinger oversaw its fifth public hearing on June 23, 2022, serving as the lead questioner of witnesses. The hearing featured testimony from former Department of Justice officials describing how Trump tried to enlist them in his fight to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Kinzinger also co-led the eighth hearing with Representative Elaine Luria.
On February 4, 2022, the Republican National Committee called the events of January 6, 2021, a "legitimate political discourse" and overwhelmingly voted by voice vote to censure Kinzinger, along with Representative Liz Cheney, for taking part in the House investigation of the Capitol assault.
In his farewell address to Congress on December 15, 2022, Kinzinger warned his colleagues of the influence of conspiracy theories and falsehoods on politics, as well as threats to democracy in America and rising authoritarianism and factionalism. He criticized the Republican Party, saying:
Where Republicans once believed that limited government meant lower taxes and more autonomy, today limited government means inciting violence against government officials.
Following the tragic Oklahoma City bombing, former President George H. W. Bush publicly refuted those who used fear to gain support. In stark contrast, our leaders today belittle, and in some cases justify, attacks on the U.S. Capitol as "legitimate political discourse". The once great party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan has turned its back on the ideals of liberty and self-governance. Instead, it has embraced lies and deceit.
The Republican Party used to believe in a big tent, which welcomed the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Now we shelter the ignorant, the racists, who only stoke anger and hatred to those that are different than us.
Our constituents voted us in based on our beliefs, but we cannot use our faith as a sword and a shield while ignoring the fact we are all children of God, that we are all Americans.
Kinzinger also criticized Democrats:
To my Democratic colleagues, you too must bear the burden of our failures. Many of you have asked me, "Where are all the good Republicans?" Over the past two years, Democratic leadership had the opportunity to stand above the fray. Instead, they poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of MAGA Republicans, the same candidates President Biden called a national security threat, to ensure these good Republicans do not make it out of their respective primaries. This is no longer politics as usual; this is not a game. If you keep stoking the fire, you can't point the fingers when our great experiment goes up in flames.
