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21 Mar

Posted at 15:35h in Advocacy
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The 2025 Kansas legislative session is quickly drawing to a close as legislators spent the majority of the session’s 10th week debating and ultimately passing a combined 160 bills, including the preliminary state budget ahead of First Adjournment scheduled for March 28. Conference committees, a six-person panel consisting of each committee’s chairmen, vice chairmen and ranking member, begin meeting on Monday to negotiate differences in House and Senate-passed legislation. The most-watched conference committee will be the budget, which began meeting on Friday to finalize 25 pages worth of differences in the state budget. The legislature is scheduled to meet for eight...

15 Mar

Posted at 14:18h in Advocacy
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Kansas lawmakers worked through the last few days of committee work this week before they wrap up hearings on March 18 and begin multiple days of debate on bills. This will be followed by conference committees meeting on amended bills the week of March 24, and then the legislature’s first adjournment on March 28. Following this break, the Legislature will return on April 10 for a brief Veto Session to consider final action on certain bills and possibly take an override vote on any bills vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. The Senate Ways and Means completed its initial...

07 Mar

Posted at 16:27h in Advocacy
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Kansas lawmakers now have only 7 days to hold hearings and wrap up any remaining pertinent issues by March 18. After that date, the Legislature will spend about a week debating passage of bills prior to their first adjournment on March 28. Following a short break, the Legislature will return on April 10 for a brief Veto Session to consider final action on bills and possibly take an override vote on any bills vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. Feeling this pressure, committee chairs in both the Senate and House of Representatives have scheduled numerous bills for hearing and...

28 Feb

Posted at 15:05h in Advocacy
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Entering the first week after the 2025 Kansas legislature’s Turnaround, lawmakers now only have four weeks remaining to wrap up any pertinent issues. The last day for most committees to meet this year is March 18. After which, the legislature will spend a few days debating passage of bills prior to their first adjournment on March 28. Following a short break, the legislature will return on April 10 for a brief veto session to consider final action on bills and possibly take an override vote on any bills vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. Feeling this pressure, committee chairs...

21 Feb

Posted at 19:08h in Advocacy
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The Kansas legislature powered through this week’s winter storm in order to meet its self-imposed Turnaround Deadline, where most bills are required to advance through their house of origin by Friday, February 21. The House of Representatives sent 89 bills to their Senate counterparts, including the first budget bill of the year, while the senators in the upper chamber passed 64 pieces of legislation across the rotunda. Both chambers’ Republican supermajority paid dividends for legislative leadership as the legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill banning certain gender-affirming care, 31-9 and 85-34. Lawmakers received a welcomed long weekend,...

15 Feb

Posted at 19:36h in Advocacy
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Inclement weather in the middle of the week forced the legislature to postpone committee meetings, work later into the evenings and, in a rare occurrence, hold hearings on Friday afternoon ahead of the session’s first major deadline next week. Lawmakers have one remaining day of committee work next Monday before spending long hours on the floor of their respective chambers, prior to ‘Turnaround,” or the mid-point of the session where most bills must be passed out of their house of origin to stay alive for the year. A bill is subject to the ‘Turnaround’ deadline unless it is blessed...

07 Feb

Posted at 18:55h in Advocacy
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Kansas legislative committees worked rapidly throughout the session’s fourth week, holding more than 75 hearings as the ‘Turnaround’ week quickly approaches on February 20. ‘Turnaround’ refers to the mid-point of the session where most bills must be passed out of their house of origin for hearings to begin in the opposite chamber. A bill is subject to the ‘Turnaround’ deadline unless it is “blessed” by legislative leadership or resides in an exempt committee (Federal and State Affairs, Appropriations, Tax and Ways and Means). Lawmakers and advocates work to have their interests advanced through the committee process, and several bills...

31 Jan

Posted at 16:09h in Advocacy
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Schools from around the state brought students to the statehouse this week to celebrate Kansas Day as lawmakers scrambled against the clock to get their bills introduced in this truncated 2025 legislative session. Social issues including gender affirming care dominated the headlines this week. Meanwhile, the first major piece of property tax legislation cleared the Senate chamber eliminating the state’s 1.5 mill property tax levy. With the legislature’s, “Turnaround,” scheduled for Feb. 20, a date by which all non-exempt bills must be passed out of their house of origin, committee chairs have scheduled numerous pieces of legislation for hearing and...

24 Jan

Posted at 16:18h in Advocacy
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Following Monday’s holiday, lawmakers took advantage of the short work week and quickly introduced a flurry of bills ahead of the Jan. 27 deadline concluding the window for individual bill drafts. In all, nearly 170 pieces of legislation have been introduced in the 2025 Kansas legislative session, with many more ideas still in the drafting queue. The House of Representatives passed its resolution of the joint rules for the 2025-2026 biennium to the Senate for consideration, however, most of the heavy-lifting was conducted in committees during the legislature’s second week in Topeka. Leadership in both the House and Senate are...

17 Jan

Posted at 14:48h in Advocacy
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As your eyes and ears at the capitol, we were in attendance to welcome legislators into the new biennium on your behalf on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. Following the election in November, where all 125 House of Representatives seats and 40 Senate seats were open, more than 30 new lawmakers were sworn in to represent their districts’ interests. Governor Laura Kelly delivered the annual State of the State address on Wednesday where she focused on economic development initiatives, a new strategic plan to conserve water and her disagreement toward republican leadership’s plans to cut corporate income and property taxes. Quickly...

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