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The 🐝 Rating System
Each bill is evaluated based on four key factors: Scope of Impact, Financial Impact, Urgency, and Controversy. These factors are weighted to reflect their influence on the bill's overall importance. Here's how the ratings break down:
🐝 Minimal Impact: Legislation with limited reach or lower urgency and controversy.
🐝🐝 Moderate Impact: Proposals with a broader or more notable influence, addressing issues of medium urgency or financial significance.
🐝🐝🐝 High Impact: Bills with widespread consequences, urgent needs, or significant public and political attention.
Daily Legislative Update 🐝
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Below is today’s morning update on published activities in the Kansas Legislature.
Table of Contents
Top Stories of the Day
Legislative Modernization (or lack thereof)
If you’ve ever tried to find a specific bill on the Kansas Legislature website, or the scheduled time and date of the next meeting of a particular committee, or any public testimony submitted on a specific bill, or a general calendar of events and activities at the capitol, or the identity of the legislators that represent your particular address, or the status of a bill, or (bless your heart) tried to analyze that information in a structured way, you’ve had three options:
Manually drudge through a website that dates back to 2012 (or earlier), download PDF documents, and interpret them by hand.
Pay for a commercial service like Legiscan or State Affairs.
Give up.
We’ve been building out BillBee.ai as a home-grown alternative to these options–something with a more modern sensibility and more nuance for Kansas-specific dynamics. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to do this because the Kansas legislature would provide adequate resources as part of its public charter to keep citizens and organizations informed.
There is a Legislative Modernization committee in the House. They haven’t been very active, however:
Bills Sponsored by the Legislative Modernization Committee
In short, there is no reason to expect the quality of information transparency from the legislature to improve in 2025 or 2026. It’s up to the public to build its own solutions, or to pressure elected officials to do so.
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Kansas 2026 Election Bingo Card
One of the unspoken (but obvious) motivations for this year’s accelerated legislative session is to free up current elected officials to begin campaigning for larger offices in 2026. Scott Schwab (R) has already declared himself as running for Governor, but it’s expected to be a competitive race (on the Republican side of the ballot).
Democratic nominees are less obvious at the moment. Senator Cindy Holscher and Lieutenant Governor David Toland have both either expressed interest or behaved in ways that suggest interest, but the exceptionally thin superminority makes the usual progression from legislative to executive branch problematic.
We can likely expect anyone with sincere interests to begin formally announcing their campaigns. The list of declared candidates is short for now, and you can’t raise money without declaring a treasurer.
Who’s going to run for Governor in 2026?
Bills and Resolutions
UPDATE: Summaries of these bills are now published on BillBee. The links below go directly to each bill’s writeup.
House Bills on the Floor for Consideration
Final Action on Bills and Concurrent Resolutions:
Senate Bills on the Floor for Consideration
Final Action on Bills and Concurrent Resolutions:
🐝🐝 SB 137: Regulates handling of forfeited firearm sales.
🐝 Sub SB 33: Exempts custom meat processing services from state sales taxation.
🐝🐝🐝 SCR 1604: Making application to the United States congress to call a convention of the states for the purpose of proposing amendments to limit the federal government.
New Bills Introduced
House Bills:
Senate Bills:
Healthcare and Public Health:
🐝🐝 SB 278: The bill ratifies a state compact for educational opportunity enhancement.
Government Organization, Elections, and Public Administration:
🐝🐝 SB 279: Revises campaign finance and governmental ethics laws.
Taxes, Fiscal Policy, and Economic Development:
🐝🐝 SB 280: Voter approval required for property tax increases above inflation.
Session Highlights for February 26, 2025
House of Representatives
The House, presided over by Speaker pro tempore Carpenter, conducted various legislative activities including bill introductions, referrals, and resolutions.
Session convened at 11:00 a.m. and was adjourned until 11:00 a.m. on February 27, 2025.
Roll Call:
117 members were present, with Reps. Helgerson, Hill, and S. Ruiz excused for illness, Rep. L. Williams excused for legislative business, and Reps. Awerkamp, W. Carpenter, Reavis, and Schwertfeger excused by the Speaker.
Bill Actions:
Committee Actions:
Committee on Federal and State Affairs:
Recommended HB 2331 be passed.
Committee on Elections:
Recommended amendments to HB 2054 and passed as further amended.
Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development:
Referred bills SB 166, SB 197, and SB 199.
Committee on Health and Human Services:
Received withdrawn bills HB 2386, HB 2223, and HB 2159 for referral.
Additional Notes:
Awards and Recognitions:
Multiple representatives presented framed House certificates to various guests recognizing achievements in areas such as mental health advocacy, education, and athletics.
Prayer and Devotions:
Representative Emil Bergquist sang “The Lord's Prayer” as the daily devotional.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Rep. Louis Ruiz.
Senate
The Senate, presided over by President Ty Masterson, held its session starting at 2:30 p.m. The chamber adjourned until 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Roll Call:
40 senators were present.
Bill Actions:
Committee Actions:
Committee on Assessment and Taxation:
Recommended amendments to SB 74 and passed as amended.
Submitted appointment recommendations for the State Board of Tax Appeals.
Committee on Public Health and Welfare:
Submitted appointment recommendation for the Inspector General, Kansas Attorney General.
Additional Notes:
Points of Personal Privilege:
Senator Klemp introduced and recognized the Leavenworth High School JROTC Raiders' achievements.
Guest Chaplain:
Dave DePue delivered the invocation.
Prayer:
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by President Masterson.
Upcoming Actions
House of Representatives
Session Time: 11:00 AM
Committee Updates:
Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications (9:00 AM): Hearing on SB 92 extending the timeframe for transmission line siting applications.
Veterans and Military (9:00 AM): Presentation by Lt. Col. Keith Marshall from the Adjutant General's Department.
Water (9:00 AM): Presentation on fluoridation by representatives from the Kansas Dental Association and Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget (1:30 PM): Meeting on call of the chair.
Commerce, Labor and Economic Development (1:30 PM): Hearing on HB 2294 concerning child care center licensing and pilot programs.
Corrections and Juvenile Justice (1:30 PM): Presentation on 546-S by Randy Regehr, Director of Reno County Community Corrections.
Education (1:30 PM): Discussion and action on SB 50 related to service scholarship programs and repayment obligations.
Health and Human Services (1:30 PM): Presentation on the 988 Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Hotline and Mental Health Intervention Team Program.
Higher Education Budget (1:30 PM): Meeting on call of the chair.
Transportation (1:30 PM): Hearing on SB 8 requiring caution when passing vehicles displaying hazard warning lights.
Agriculture and Natural Resources (3:30 PM): Meeting on call of the chair.
General Government Budget (3:30 PM): Meeting on call of the chair.
K-12 Education Budget (3:30 PM): Presentation on Special Education Finance Funding Day by Nick Myers and Dr. Frank Hardwood.
Transportation and Public Safety Budget (3:30 PM): Meeting on call of the chair.
Elections (3:30 PM): Hearing on SB 6 prohibiting the use of ranked-choice voting methods.
Senate
Session Time: 2:30 PM
Committee Updates:
Public Health and Welfare (8:30 AM): Hearing on HB 2027 reorganizing subsections of the public assistance statute.
Assessment and Taxation (9:30 AM): Request for bill introductions and hearing on SB 108 authorizing counties to impose an earnings tax.
Government Efficiency (9:30 AM): Hearing on HB 2261 concerning Kansas Highway Patrol organizational changes.
Federal and State Affairs (10:30 AM): Request for bill introductions and hearing on SB 254 prohibiting certain aliens from receiving state or local public benefits.
Ways and Means (10:30 AM): Request for bill introductions, budget hearing, and action on SB 35 discontinuing state property tax levies.
Education (1:30 PM): Hearing on SB 263 establishing active shooter drill standards and presentation on Amira Learning.
Have any ideas or feedback just let us know!
1 Tracking and interpreting the current state of a bill on the Kansas legislature website is, unfortunately, a non-trivial process. We’re using automation to accomplish this but it’s dependent on the quality of the information published to the website…which is not pristine. If you see something that looks incorrect, please email [email protected] and we’ll manually correct it.
