Topeka Buzz: January 30, 2026

Thirty-two new bills, 72 committee actions, and two floor votes. Yes, that's why this morning's update is a little later than usual...

Author

Jason Anderson
January 30, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

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Topeka Buzz 🐝
Friday, January 30, 2026

Table of Contents

Top Stories of the Day

🐝🐝🐝 HB 2597: Creates statewide paid sick leave for Kansas workers

HB2597 creates a statewide right to paid sick leave for employees who work in Kansas. It requires employers to provide paid sick time beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Workers can use leave for their own illness, preventive care, to care for family, for bereavement-related matters, for needs tied to domestic abuse or sexual assault, for certain school or place-of-care closures, public health emergency closures, and specified evacuations. The law covers private- and public-sector workers and affects employers of all sizes.

The bill sets a minimum accrual rate of 2 hours of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked and caps required annual accrual and use at 40 hours; employers may frontload leave or offer more generous policies. Accrual begins at hire and can be used as it is earned; up to 40 unused hours may carry forward and must be reinstated if a worker is rehired within six months. The Kansas Department of Labor must write rules to implement the law, including guidance for fee-for-service workers; the bill does not specify penalties or dedicated funding, so employer costs and state administrative needs are uncertain.

🐝🐝🐝 HB 2600: Expands Medicaid to adults up to 138% FPL

HB2600 creates the Affordable Healthcare for Kansans program and expands Kansas Medicaid. Starting January 1, 2027, adults under age 65 who are not pregnant and whose income is at or below 138% of the federal poverty level may become eligible for medical assistance. This change aims to reduce the uninsured rate for low-income working-age adults and will affect KDHE, hospitals, and the state budget.

KDHE must administer the program and provide outreach to potentially eligible Kansans. The bill contains no appropriations, enrollment estimates, or detailed operational steps, so the state share and total fiscal impact are unknown. Expansion usually raises Medicaid spending but also brings enhanced federal matching funds and may lower uncompensated care.

Bills reporting out of committee

Multiple bills passed out of their respective committees, and will be headed to the floor of the House or Senate:

  • HB 2464 (bill be passed): Extend aerospace tax credit sunset to 2036

  • HB 2438 (bill be further amended and be passed as amended): Limit online voter registration to .gov or SOS-approved sites

  • HB 2471 (bill be passed): Names I-35 segment in Franklin County for Deputy Sam Smith

  • SB 113 (bill be passed as amended): Makes extreme speeding a reckless-driving misdemeanor

  • HB 2462 (bill be passed): Requires rules allowing potable reuse of treated wastewater

  • HB 2424 (bill be passed as amended): Creates pump contractor license, expands well rules

New Bills Introduced

Agriculture

  • 🐝 SB 425: Raises seed dealer fee caps and adds late renewal fees

Business & Commerce

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2598: Creates Kansas paid family and medical leave

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2602: Authorizes portable benefits and tax breaks for contractors

  • 🐝🐝 SB 426: Sets transparency rules for consumer legal funding

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2591: Banks may report and pause suspected financial abuse

  • 🐝 HB 2590: Authorizes Kansas community property trusts

  • 🐝 HB 2592: Creates Kansas task force on AI and emerging tech

  • 🐝 SB 422: Rewrites foreign insurer rules; tightens agent licensing

Civil Rights

  • 🐝🐝 SB 421: Protects student religious & political speech

Criminal Justice

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2596: Allows prisons to contract for manufactured and modular homes

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2594: Expands blackmail law to cover AI-made sexual images

Education

  • 🐝🐝 SB 424: Bars school-sponsored prayer and religious coercion

  • 🐝🐝 SB 420: Requires Holocaust lessons in grades 6–12

  • 🐝 HB 2595: Pays law students to practice in rural Kansas

Elections & Government

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2593: Require AG approval, open meeting for contingency legal fees

  • 🐝 SB 427: Allows Senate leaders to review KBI and tax records

Healthcare

  • 🐝🐝 SB 423: Count drug cost assistance toward deductibles

Public Safety

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2603: Prevents local rules on battery-powered security fences

Social Services

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2601: Creates child abuse registry with hearings

  • 🐝🐝 SB 428: Requires Kansas agencies to share program data with federal agencies

Taxation

  • 🐝🐝 HB 2599: Exempts minor-run small businesses from sales tax, permits

Uncategorized

  • SB 431: Establishing the remote practice of pharmacy, requiring certain conditions for such practice and limiting activities performed under such practice.

  • HB 2606: Modifying the definition of conviction in the Kansas uniform commercial drivers' license act.

  • HB 2608: Increasing the criminal penalties for exposing another to a communicable disease and modifying the elements of such crime to include otherwise lawful or unlawful sexual intercourse or sodomy.

  • SB 430: Permitting licensed physical therapists to perform certain capillary blood tests.

  • HB 2604: Including gross vehicle weight in the definitions for classes of commercial motor vehicles for drivers' license purposes and modifying the definition of commercial motor vehicle and creating a definition of air mile and gross vehicle weight in the Kansas uniform commercial drivers' license act.

  • SB 429: Extending the sunset for the angel investor tax credit to 2031.

  • HB 2605: Designating a portion of U.S. highway 36 as the deputy sheriff Brandon Gaede memorial highway.

  • HB 2607: Designating the official Kansas railroad hall of fame and establishing the Kansas railroad hall of fame selection committee.

  • SR 1724: Commemorating and celebrating the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.

Floor Votes

Thursday, January 29

House (2)

  • HB 2446: PASS (115 Yes, 2 No, 8 Absent). Deletes the rule that required treasurers’ names in many political ad attributions and disclaimers. Sponsors and a responsible person still must be named; penalties and other disclosure rules remain.

  • HB 2476: PASS (81 Yes, 36 No, 8 Absent). This bill says pesticides with certain EPA-aligned labels will count as meeting Kansas warning and labeling rules. That could limit some state-based labeling lawsuits while still allowing non-label claims.

Committee Actions

Agriculture and Natural Resources

Bills Referred (4)

  • SB 425: Raises seed dealer fee caps and adds late renewal fees

  • HB 2581: Allow shelters to foster neonate animals during hold

  • HB 2582: Creates loan-repayment program for rural vets

  • SB 407: Authorizes KDHE hazardous waste monitoring and fee rules

Child Welfare and Foster Care

Bills Referred (2)

  • HB 2601: Creates child abuse registry with hearings

  • HB 2589: Bars anonymous DCF abuse reports; law enforcement may accept

Commerce

Bills Referred (1)

  • SB 418: Streamlines housing approvals with 15-day by-right permits

Commerce, Labor and Economic Development

Bills Referred (7)

  • HB 2595: Pays law students to practice in rural Kansas

  • HB 2598: Creates Kansas paid family and medical leave

  • HB 2580: Creates Kansas International Trade Commission

  • HB 2597: Creates statewide paid sick leave for Kansas workers

  • HB 2588: Creates statewide electrician licensing system

  • HB 2603: Prevents local rules on battery-powered security fences

  • HB 2596: Allows prisons to contract for manufactured and modular homes

Bills Reported Out (1)

  • HB 2464 (bill be passed): Extend aerospace tax credit sunset to 2036

Committee of the Whole

Bills Referred (1)

  • SCR 1615: Establishes Charlie Kirk Free Speech Day on Oct. 14

Education

Bills Referred (7)

  • SB 421: Protects student religious & political speech

  • SB 424: Bars school-sponsored prayer and religious coercion

  • SB 420: Requires Holocaust lessons in grades 6–12

  • SCR 1620: Kansas calls U.S. national debt a security threat

  • SB 406: Approve short-term programs for workforce Pell grants

  • HB 2576: Requires K-12 schools to provide Erin's Law training

  • SB 419: Creates statewide free-speech rules for public colleges

Elections

Bills Referred (1)

  • HB 2569: Moves statewide election challenges to Shawnee County

Bills Reported Out (1)

  • HB 2438 (bill be further amended and be passed as amended): Limit online voter registration to .gov or SOS-approved

Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications

Bills Referred (1)

  • HB 2586: Includes certain broadband revenues in city franchise fees

Federal and State Affairs

Bills Referred (5)

  • HB 2446: Removes treasurer names from political ad disclaimers

  • HB 2573: Grants practice privileges to out-of-state CPAs

  • SB 405: Bans training AI to encourage self-harm or mimic humans

  • HB 2577: State must buy B20+ biodiesel for diesel fleet

  • HB 2568: Authorizes Wildlife & Parks to adopt fee rules

Financial Institutions and Insurance

Bills Referred (5)

  • SB 422: Rewrites foreign insurer rules; tightens agent licensing

  • SB 423: Count drug cost assistance toward deductibles

  • SB 412: Conservators must notify banks of court asset orders

  • SB 409: Eliminates patient cost-sharing for certain breast imaging

  • SB 410: Extend data-security rules to earned wage access providers

Financial Institutions and Pensions

Bills Referred (2)

  • HB 2591: Banks may report and pause suspected financial abuse

  • HB 2590: Authorizes Kansas community property trusts

Government Efficiency

Bills Referred (1)

  • SB 428: Requires Kansas agencies to share program data with federal agencies

Health and Human Services

Bills Referred (2)

  • HB 2600: Expands Medicaid to adults up to 138% FPL

  • HB 2587: Allows private psych hospitals to keep emergency drug kits

Insurance

Bills Referred (1)

  • HB 2602: Authorizes portable benefits and tax breaks for contractors

Judiciary

Bills Referred (11)

  • SB 426: Sets transparency rules for consumer legal funding

  • SB 427: Allows Senate leaders to review KBI and tax records

  • SB 415: Apply consumer-law remedies to uninhabitable rentals

  • SB 408: Exclude age-appropriate independence from CINC

  • SB 413: Bans lawyers from suggesting dollar amounts for pain and suffering

  • SB 416: Allows interior home inspections with warrant or imminent danger

  • SB 414: Authorizes up to $2M for youth crisis services

  • HB 2413: Makes livestock and farm-implement theft a felony

  • HB 2594: Expands blackmail law to cover AI-made sexual images

  • HB 2422: Classify grain theft as a level 6 nonperson felony

  • HB 2593: Require AG approval, open meeting for contingency legal fees

Legislative Modernization

Bills Referred (3)

  • HB 2592: Creates Kansas task force on AI and emerging tech

  • HB 2574: Extend cybersecurity oversight and tie it to budgets

  • HR 6023: Opposes federal limits on Kansas AI laws

Local Government

Bills Referred (1)

  • HB 2571: Require cost-sharing for roads on municipal borders

Taxation

Bills Referred (3)

  • HB 2570: Exempts O'Connell shelter purchases from sales tax

  • HB 2599: Exempts minor-run small businesses from sales tax, permits

  • HB 2572: Exempts Kansas war memorials from sales and property tax

Transportation

Bills Referred (7)

  • HB 2583: Requires truck drivers to carry ID and prove English

  • HB 2579: Designates part of K-49 as Pvt. Michael E. Gerber Memorial

  • HB 2575: End annual registration, fees, and taxes on personal cars

  • HB 2578: Allows antique farm vehicles to register and carry decal

  • HB 2584: Allow mailing address on Kansas driver's license

  • HB 2585: Creates Delta Waterfowl specialty license plate

  • SB 411: Allows triple-trailer trucks and raises off‑highway weight

Bills Reported Out (2)

  • HB 2471 (bill be passed): Names I-35 segment in Franklin County for Deputy Sam Smith

  • SB 113 (bill be passed as amended): Makes extreme speeding a reckless-driving misdemeanor

Utilities

Bills Referred (1)

  • SB 417: Gives counties veto power; SCC permits for large renewables

Water

Bills Reported Out (2)

  • HB 2462 (bill be passed): Requires rules allowing potable reuse of treated wastewater

  • HB 2424 (bill be passed as amended): Creates pump contractor license, expands well rules

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