By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers succeeded Thursday in forcing a Thanksgiving-week special session of the Kansas Legislature to consider financially protecting workers who refuse to comply with federal vaccine mandates.
GOP legislative leaders announced that all Republicans in both the House and the Senate have signed a petition demanding a special session starting Nov. 22. Governors call special sessions, but the Kansas Constitution requires them to do it if two-thirds of both chambers demand it — the GOP holds more than enough seats.
Republicans have been looking for ways for Kansas to resist vaccine mandates announced in September by President Joe Biden that cover more than 100 million workers. Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, has proposed measures to make it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions to the mandates from their employers and to provide unemployment benefits to workers who are fired for not getting inoculated.
The full Legislature has been out of session since May and wasn’t scheduled to reconvene until January.
It’s the first time in Kansas history that lawmakers have forced a governor to call a special session. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly last week expressed opposition to Biden’s vaccine mandates but was non-committal Wednesday about bringing lawmakers back to Topeka.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers have succeeded in forcing a Thanksgiving-week special session of the Kansas Legislature to consider financially protecting workers who refuse to comply with federal vaccine mandates. GOP legislative leaders announced that all Republicans in both the House and the Senate have signed a petition demanding a special session starting Nov. 22.
"This unprecedented action is necessitated by equally unprecedented actions from the Biden administration that enacted these mandates unilaterally, without respecting the constitutional law making power reserved for Congress. Never before has the federal government forced Kansans to choose between their personal beliefs and their livelihoods, according to a statement from House Speaker Ron Ryckman (R-Olathe), House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins (R-Wichita) and Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch (R-Ottawa).
Governors call special sessions, but the Kansas Constitution requires them to do it if two-thirds of both chambers demand it — and the GOP holds more than enough seats.
There are GOP proposals to make it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions to vaccine mandates and to provide unemployment benefits to employees fired for not getting inoculated.