March 24, 2023
This week the Kansas House of Representatives debated twelve bills on the House Floor.
Here are the details for some of the bills we debated:
On Tuesday, we started with House Concurrent Resolution 5008, which would apply to the Congress of the United States to call for a Convention of States. This convention would call for the limited purpose of amending the US Constitution to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government.
House Bill 2313 creates the born-alive infants protection act, which provides legal protections for infants who are born alive regardless of the intent of delivery.
Wednesday, we debated Senate Bill 133, which makes appropriations for K-12 education for fiscal years 2023, 2024, and 2025. The State General Fund cost of Senate Bill 133 is around $6 billion.
House Bill 2436 enacts the Kansas Public Investments and Contracts Protection Act concerning Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). This would prohibit the state of Kansas and political subdivisions from giving preferential treatment to or discriminating against companies based on ESG criteria.
Senate Bill 208, relates to the Governmental Ethics Commission’s authority to investigate and enforce the Campaign Finance Act.
Thursday, we began with Senate Bill 15 which removes the requirement of a documented written demand for premiums as part of a prima facie case against agents or brokers who fail to pay premiums due.
Senate Bill 18 adds certain legal entities to the definition of “person,” thereby making such entities subject to penalties for violations of insurance law.
Senate Bill 28 discontinues payments to certain group-funded insurance pools and refunds existing balances.
I voted “Yes” for all of the bills.
Kansas Disaster Response and Recovery Bill
Tuesday of this week, I introduced House Bill 2468, which stipulates the response procedures for the state of Kansas regarding a severe weather event. During the Legislative break, I served on the Wildfire Task Force where we attempted to address how the state of Kansas could have responded better after the wildfire events of December 15, 2021. At that time, the state of Kansas did not have a formal response procedure and it was obviously evident. The state’s response was, in my opinion, slow, which was compounded with misinformation.
House Bill 2468, formalizes the process before, during, and after a severe weather event, like the Four-County Fire that occurred in the 109th Kansas House District. The bill also creates a Disaster Contingency Fund to assist with relief, especially smaller communities that may not qualify for Federal Emergency Management Act (FEMA) aid.
House Appropriations Committee
This week, the House Appropriations Committee completed our work on the Kansas State budget and also passed two other bills out of committee.
Tuesday, March 21, we started working on the Kanas House State Budget for fiscal years 2023, 2024, and 2025. Many changes that were made in committee to the budget that the Governor sent to the Legislature at the start of session.
The committee removed or reduced numerous spending increases in the Governor’s submission. As an example, the Governor proposed $220 million for the Kansas Infrastructure Hub, in fiscal year 2024, in order to draw down federal dollars.
The committee changed the provisions by allotting only $50 million for four years. There were also many items that we needed to address regarding Federal dollars received by state agencies and departments during the COVID-19 pandemic. We had to analyze if those programs would continue to be funded since the federal aid has stopped. We plan to debate the budget bill next week.
Thursday, we worked two bills derived from the interim committee that I chaired for State Employee Compensation and Benefits. House Bill 2418 abolishes certain boards and commissions that have not met for some length of time from the statute book. House Bill 2449 equalizes the compensation for board members that serve on boards and commissions to one flat amount, as opposed to varying amounts as is now.
Contact Information
Anytime that you would like to participate and listen to the developments of committee hearings or discussion on the House floor, you can tune in by video or audio at www.kslegislature.org.
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, follow on twitter at @waymaster4house, or email me at [email protected].
It is a distinct honor to serve as your representative for the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Please contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and questions. I always appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas, as well.
Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill, is the Kansas House Appropriations Chairman and 109th District state representative which includes:
* Ellsworth, Lincoln, Osborne, Russell and Smith Counties