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Daily Legislative Update 🐝
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Below is today’s morning update on published activities in the Kansas Legislature.
Table of Contents
Top Stories of the Day
“Quiet” day in Topeka as Senate considers replacing the Kansas Supreme Court
As the first day back in session after the Turnaround break, most of the action continues to shift back to the committees. In the Senate, SB 210 was passed out of the Assessment and Taxation committee and back to the full chamber; this small bill gives tax exemptions to the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. In the House, HB 2125 was passed and would allow Pawnee County to propose a new sales tax to fund healthcare services. Both votes were uncontroversial.
Things were much noisier in the committees, however, where multiple much-more-controversial proposals and constitutional amendments were presented at hearings. At the top of that list is SCR 1611, which proposes replacing the appointment process to the state Supreme Court with a partisan election. This item was flagged here in the Topeka Buzz back on February 11, where we predicted it would become a loud and confrontational issue.
If the published testimony so far is any indication, I think that prediction rings true:
Proponent Testimony
Former Associate Justice for the North Carolina Supreme Court
Retired District Judge
Sedgwick County District Judge
District Judge, 13th District
Americans for Prosperity (multiple presenters)
Kansas Policy Institute
Republican Precinct Committee-persons
Attorney General Kris Kobach
Solicitor General Anthony Powell
Senate President Ty Masterson
Kansas Chamber of Commerce
Opponent Testimony
Kansas Trial Lawyers Association
American Federation of Teachers
Kansas Organization of State Employees
Kansas Interfaith Action
Johnson County Bar Association
Women for Kansas
Planned Parenthood Great Plains
Loud Light Civic Action
Kansas Women’s Attorney’s Association
Wichita Bar Association
Disability Rights Center of Kansas
Kansas Bar Association
Kansas Association of Defense Counsel
Kansas Women Attorneys Association for Freedom
ACLU of Kansas
Appleseed Center for Law and Justice
Kansas Association of School Boards
Judging by the testimony alone, the proposed amendment is clearly a partisan issue. The alignment of Americans for Prosperity, the Kansas Policy Institute, multiple elected Republican officials, and conservative justices belie the coordinated action. With a veto-proof supermajority as the backdrop, it’s difficult to find a path that leads to any outcome besides the passage of the resolution.
Advocates should focus their energy on the next phase of this debate: organizing for the citizen vote on the November 2026 ballot.
Join Capitol Bee and others at Boots on the Ground
Meet the folks behind the Capitol Bee this weekend at the Boots on the Ground Volunteer Fair, aimed at connecting people with non- profits offering front-line support to our neighbors in need. Participants will have the opportunity to meet with groups working on: LGBTQIA+ rights, immigration, voters rights, racial justice, reproductive rights, food and housing insecurity, climate change and more.
The event will include action-oriented workshops on a range of topics, including how to engage with legislators, how to have uncomfortable conversations and avoiding activist fatigue. The event is free and child-friendly.
March 1 | 1 to 4 p.m.
Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church
9400 Pflumm | Lenexa, KS
Are you enjoying these daily updates? (The newsletter itself, we have no direct control over what’s currently happening in Topeka.) If so, consider upgrading to a Supporter!
A Recap of BillBee’s Current Features
We’ve been rapidly building out and prototyping a number of features for BillBee these past six weeks, and are encouraged by the feedback we’ve been receiving so far. Thank you for your comments, suggestions, and words of encouragement!
Many of those feature announcements have just been slipped into a Topeka Buzz issue here or there, though, and not everybody reads every issue, so we wanted to recap some of its current primary uses:
Emailing a committee. All of the standing House and Senate committees are published on our Committees page, with one-click buttons to start writing an email to the committee assistant or the full membership of the committee. Sincerely, if you want to submit testimony, just start here. It’s so much easier.
Researching a bill. With a few exceptions, all of the PDF versions of every bill have been downloaded and are accessible from the Bills section. Search and sort by chamber, by topic, by open text search fields. Read AI-generated summaries of what the bills actually mean. Click directly over to the source material on the KSLeg website.
Research a legislator. We’ve also gathered together published information about each state representative and senator (so we can connect them to the committees). This includes their contact information and email, but we’re actively adding social media links as well.
Maps! Don’t forget about election maps, which is where this whole thing started. We only have the Johnson County election data loaded so far, but would love to add more. If you register an account on the site, you can play around with making your own sharable maps as well.
Bills Under Consideration
House Bills on the Floor for Consideration
Final Action on Bills and Concurrent Resolutions:
HB 2125 – Countywide retailers' sales tax authority for Pawnee county for the purpose of healthcare services and furnishing and equipping county-supported public safety operations.
Consent Calendar (Bills Eligible for Fast-Track Approval):
HB 2125 – Advanced from Consent Calendar to Final Action.
Session Highlights for February 25, 2025
House of Representatives
The House, presided over by Speaker Hawkins, convened at 11:00 a.m.
Roll Call:
114 members were present, with Reps. Awerkamp, Carmichael, Collins, Helgerson, Mosley, Neighbor, S. Ruiz, and Sawyer excused for illness; Rep. L. Williams excused on legislative business; Reps. W. Carpenter and Schreiber excused by the Speaker.
Bill Actions:
HB2125: Passed with 112 Yeas and 2 Nays; advanced to Final Action on Bills and Concurrent Resolutions.
Bills referred to committees:
Additional Notes:
Prayer was delivered by guest chaplain, Rev. Jerry Schmid.
House was adjourned until 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
Senate
The Senate convened at 2:30 p.m.
Roll Call:
39 senators were present, with Senator Joseph Claeys absent.
Bill Actions:
SB278: Introduced and read by title.
Bills withdrawn from Committee on Ways and Means and referred to other committees:
Committee Actions:
Committee on Assessment and Taxation: Recommended SB210 be passed.
Additional Notes:
Senator Francisco delivered a Point of Personal Privilege in memory of his mother.
Senate was adjourned until 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
Upcoming Actions
House
Session Time: 11:00 AM
Committee Updates:
Appropriations (9:00 AM): Request for bill introductions and presentations on Kansas Universities.
Financial Institutions and Insurance (9:00 AM): Hearing on HB 2152 — Authorizing financial institutions to secure governmental unit deposits.
Legislative Modernization (9:00 AM): Hearing on HB 2152 — Authorizing financial institutions to secure governmental unit deposits.
Local Government (9:00 AM): Meeting on call of the chair.
Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications (9:00 AM): Hearing on SB 92 — Extending the time for the state corporation commission to make a final order on transmission line siting.
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 2293 — Prohibiting acquisition of critical components of drone technology.
Education (1:30 PM): Hearing on SB 45 — Requiring the state board of education to calculate graduation rates using an alternative calculation.
Higher Education Budget (1:30 PM): Presentation on ReUp Education by Terah Crews, CEO.
Transportation (1:30 PM): Hearing on HB 2029 — Designating and redesignating highways.
Child Welfare and Foster Care (1:30 PM): Presentation on the history and impact of SB 367 on the child welfare system.
Commerce (1:30 PM): Hearing on HB 2037 — Increasing membership of the council on travel and tourism.
Senate
Session Time: 2:30 PM
Committee Updates:
Agriculture and Natural Resources (8:30 AM): Hearing continuation on SB 211 — Authorizing wildlife and parks commission members to submit proposed rules.
Public Health and Welfare (8:30 AM): Confirmation hearing for Maureen Mahoney and Donald Hall; Hearing on HB 2039 — Amending definitions in the Kansas credentialing act.
Education (1:30 PM): Hearing on SB 263 — Establishing standards for active shooter drills in schools.
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.
