That’s a Wrap for Standing Committees
On Tuesday this week, Senate Public Health and Welfare took action on HB2777, the body camera bill. The amendment introduced by Senator Pettey inserted language allowing the Fire Marshal’s inspectors to utilize still camera photographs for documenting violations. This amendment was adopted by the committee, however, Senator Thompson’s amendment brought forward by the Fire Marshal’s office to change the makeup of the Kansas Fire Service Training Commission failed. The bill was passed out of committee and headed to the Senate floor to await further action.
The House chamber dedicated nearly three hours to working their mega budget bill, HB2273, on the floor Tuesday. An amendment for the involuntary discharge proviso was introduced on the floor by Representative Landwehr and clarifies KDADS is the sole agency responsible for carrying out the provisions set forth. While numerous other items were hotly debated, aging services funding managed to remain intact including the Medicaid Capacity Payment (add-on) for nursing homes, PACE rebase, hospice 5% haircut elimination, and increase in rate reimbursement for HCBS-FE waiver. The House chamber took final action on the bill on Wednesday and passed with a vote of 91-32.
Wednesday was all things Medicaid Expansion at the Capitol this week. An informational hearing chaired by Senator McGinn at 10:30 AM followed by a hearing on HB2556 chaired by Representative Landwehr at 1:00 PM brought lively debates that haven’t been heard at the capitol in nearly five years. The House Health and Human Services committee debated further on Thursday to pass the bill out of committee without recommendations to allow the whole House chamber to debate on the floor. The motion failed and the bill remains in committee.
Thursday morning Senate Public Health and Welfare took final action on outstanding bills for the last time this session. Senator Pettey introduced an amendment to include Home Plus in the definition of CCRC in HB2784, the CCRC oversight bill. The Senator’s amendment also recommended changing the deadline for provider reporting back to “within four months of the end of the provider’s fiscal year.” Both of these amendments were requested by LeadingAge Kansas during the hearing. No other amendments were included and the bill passed out of committee to the Senate floor to await further action.
Representative Les Mason announced the Subcomittee on Contract Nursing Staff will take place April 1-3 over the lunch hour. The set up will be slightly different than normal hearings and no oral testimony will be provided when the committee meets. Instead, testimony will be submitted by Friday, March 29 and the committee will use the designated time to ask follow up questions from providers and/or their associations. LeadingAge Kansas has already worked with providers to draft some testimony, but if any others are interested in submitting written-only testimony, please email Kylee Childs by end of day Tuesday (March 26).
Bill Tracker
View our bill tracker to see which bills are exempt from legislative deadlines and which will make it “above the line.”
Coming Up
Monday – Thursday: Both chambers will be on the floor taking final action before deadline for second chamber consideration.
If you haven’t yet done so, get registered for the LeadingAge Kansas Spring Conference to attend the General Session: Updates from the Capitol City. Early bird registration ends Friday, March 15!
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