Jon Kyl

• Committee on the Judiciary
  • United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism (Ranking Member)
  • United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights
  • United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security
• Committee on Finance
  • United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight (Ranking Member)
  • United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care
  • United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
• Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction

Kyl was elected by his fellow Senate Republicans to a succession of leadership posts: Policy Committee chairman (2003–2007), Conference chairman (2007), and most recently (in December 2007), Senate Minority Whip.[21] Kyl's ascension to Minority Whip makes him the first Arizonan to hold such an influential Senate leadership post since Democrat Ernest W. McFarland served as Senate Majority Leader from 1951 to 1953. Kyl is the only Arizona Republican to hold that leadership position.

On September 4, 2018, Kyl was appointed by Republican Arizona governor Doug Ducey to the U.S. Senate seat that had been vacated due to John McCain's death.[22]

Kyl is only the sixth person to return to the Senate via appointment since the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment (mandating the direct election of U.S. senators) in 1913.[23] The last preceding case had been Norris Cotton (New Hampshire) who in 1975 was appointed back to the Senate after the disputed election of 1974.

Kyl voted in favor of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.[24] He resigned from the Senate effective December 31, 2018[25] and was succeeded by former congresswoman Martha McSally, a Republican.[26]

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Airland
  • Subcommittee on Seapower
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
• Committee on Indian Affairs

Kyl was one of the original sponsors, along with Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, of an effort to amend the United States Constitution to protect crime victims' rights in the criminal justice system. When in 2004 it appeared that the constitutional amendment would not receive the requisite 2/3 support to pass the Senate, Kyl and Feinstein authored the Crime Victims' Rights Act, which listed a victims' bill of rights and provided mandamus relief in appellate court for any victim denied those rights.[31] The act also offered sanctions against government officials who wantonly and willfully refused to comply with the Crime Victims' Rights Act.

In November 2010, Kyl opposed the New START arms control treaty's ratification in the lame-duck session.[32][33] Nevertheless, the treaty passed 71-26, clearing the constitutionally mandated two-thirds threshold by the narrowest margin of any nuclear arms control treaty ever ratified by the United States.

Kyl and Bob Goodlatte were among the first in the United States to draft legislation on online gambling. In the late 1990s they introduced bills to the Senate that would curb online gambling activities except for those that involved horse and dog races and state lotteries.[34] The bill by Kyl, known as the Kyl bill, was not passed in the end due to certain loopholes. Attorney Jorge Van, at the time principal investigator of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission on Internet Gambling, pointed out that under the Kyl bill "state lotteries would be able to offer a variety of games under the guise of a lottery, including slot machines", which ultimately would allow "interactive wagering at home on the internet which the law aimed to prevent in the first place".[35]

In September 2006, working with then-Congressman Jim Leach, Kyl was a major Senate supporter of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The Act was passed at midnight the day Congress adjourned before the 2006 elections. Prior to it being added to the bill, the gambling provisions had not been debated by any Congressional committee, although the general issue had been debated in multiple times in the past.[36] When publication of the associated regulations was delayed until June 2010, Kyl responded by denying unanimous consent to confirm the appointment of 6 nominees to the US Treasury Department, none of whom specialized on gambling issues.[37][38]

Kyl voted against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in December 2009,[39] and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[40]

Kyl and Senator Tom Cotton speaking at the Hudson Institute

In February 2006, Kyl joined Senator Lindsey Graham in an amicus brief in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case. The brief presented to the Supreme Court of the United States an "extensive colloquy" added to the Congressional Record. It was not, however, included in the December 21 debate as evidence that "Congress was aware" that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 would strip the Court of jurisdiction to hear "pending cases, including this case" brought by the Guantanamo detainees.[41]

In the spring of 2009, Kyl invited Geert Wilders to show his film Fitna to the United States Congress, which led to American Muslim protests.[42]

In 2011, Kyl said that the GOP had abandoned opposition to defense cuts.[43]

In 2012, Kyl voted against ratification of the UN Treaty Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[44]

He opposed the FIRST STEP Act. The bill passed 87-12 on December 18, 2018.[45]

In 2010, Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid wanted the Senate to return to work on the week between Christmas and New Year's in order to pass time-critical legislation including the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would ensure health coverage for 9/11 first responders. Kyl made a public comment that this would disrespect "one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate."[46] First responder Kenny Specht appeared on The Daily Show and replied, "You won't find a single New York firefighter who considers it a sign of disrespect to work in a New York City firehouse on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day."[47] The Zadroga Act passed on December 22.

During a Senate debate on April 8, 2011, Kyl said that performing abortions is "well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does". Planned Parenthood responded that 90 percent of its services are to provide contraception, STD and cancer testing and treatment, and only 3 percent are abortion-related. A spokesperson for Kyl later claimed the senator's remark "was not intended to be a factual statement but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions." Politifact noted that Planned Parenthood's numbers (from their most recent Annual Report, year ending June 30, 2009[48]) are the result of self-reporting and that there is no national audit on such claims, but stated their belief that Kyl "vastly overstated" the number.[49] A political science professor writing at National Review Online suggested that perhaps Kyl's comments were based on the pregnancy-related services provided to pregnant women, citing Planned Parenthood's 2009 annual report figures and claiming that 98% of those services were for abortion.[50] The phrase "not intended to be a factual statement" was mocked by political comedians such as Stephen Colbert, who joked, "You can't call him out for being wrong when he never intended to be right."[51]