WASHINGTON — With Republicans controlling both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, of Butler is ready for a good 2015.

However, he said this GOP control will not lead to partisan gridlock.

“This is America’s Congress, not a Republican Congress, not a Democratic Congress,” Kelly said.

The 114th Congress opened Tuesday as Kelly began his third term, and he is optimistic about 2015.

“I think the opportunity is that, for the first time in many years, the American people are going to see a government that’s very functional,” Kelly said.

He said bills will pass in the House, go to the Senate, where they will be debated, amended and voted on.

For example, this past week was the 10th time the House passed a bill for the Keystone Pipeline, but Kelly said the Senate never acted on the bill. The only time the Senate took any action was in November when Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was in danger of not being re-elected, Kelly said.

But he expects the Senate to take up the bill soon.

In the first two years of Obama’s presidency, the health care Affordable Care Act and the bank regulating Dodd-Frank Act were passed, Kelly said. Kelly said that lawmakers probably should have taken a closer look at those laws before passing them so quickly.

Since then, with a Democratic majority in the Senate and a Republican-controlled House, Kelly said the House has passed many bills, often with bipartisan support, but the Senate has not moved on any of them.

Kelly said he will continue to battle what he considers the “imperial” presidency of President Obama.

He said he is not anti-Obama, but he is against his policies. He said Obama is a good person, but he said Obama’s policies have not worked out.

Kelly also noted that Obama has said he will veto some items that Congress passes.

“He’s not a king; he’s not a monarch,” Kelly said. “There’s no one person that should be able to shut things down.”

Kelly criticized Obama’s executive actions without Congressional approval on issues such as immigration and environmental policy.

He notes those actions are particularly interesting because of Obama’s background in constitutional law.

“This is supposed to be his expertise,” Kelly said.

When Obama was a U.S. senator, Kelly said, Obama was critical of then-President George Bush overreaching his powers. Now that he is in the White House, Obama is doing the same things he criticized Bush for, Kelly said.

The congressman said his top priority was and will be the economy.

“The economy is the answer,” Kelly said.

In 2014, he said he was the co-sponsor of several bills that would make it easier to create jobs.

Of the past year, Kelly said, “Overall, I’d look at it as a successful year.”

Last year, Kelly worked for tax reform. He said the tax code needs to be made more fair and flatter. He said few people are confident doing their own taxes because of how complex the tax code is.

“80,000 pages worth of details,” Kelly said, saying that 3.5 billion hours and $167 billon were spent last year on tax preparation.

Kelly also took steps to help prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in the U.S., including introducing a bill that would keep people from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa from coming to the U.S.

Although Obama appointed an Ebola czar, Kelly said he has made numerous requests to find out what the position’s salary is or what the czar has done.

While his questions have not been answered, he said he supports the position.

Kelly also is concerned about the continuing implications of the Affordable Care Act, saying this is the year it will be fully implemented.

“2015 is going to be the year the people really understand what this piece of legislation is about,” Kelly said.

He said there will be huge costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, including an increased cost of insurance and a number of jobs lost.

Kelly said an alternate law, the American Health Care Reform Act, was put together by health care providers and is a better law. This law would repeal the ACA, create tax reforms that would allow families to deduct health care costs, allow people to buy insurance across state lines, expand access to “health savings accounts” and prevent federal funding for abortions.

He said he also wants to push education. Particularly, he wants to promote the importance of vocational education, saying there are jobs available in many fields, but there are a lack of people who are trained for them.

He said that vocational jobs are not just jobs related to heavy equipment, but also jobs such as plumbers, electricians and heating technicians.

“Those are honorable professions,” Kelly said.

He noted that taxes only get paid when people are working, so good education and jobs are crucial.