Legislative Update | March 29, 2024

Next Up – Conference Committee Week

The House and Senate were on their respective floors this week hearing bills passed out of the second chamber and determining conference committee appointments. The House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means held their first conference committee to review differences between the two mega budget bills on Monday. This conference committee is anticipated to continue meeting throughout next week to work through the budget package and come to an agreement between the two positions.

Since the House and Senate positions on PACE and hospice funding matched, these two items are not included in the conference part and will be included in the final budget bill. The nursing facility add-on, involuntary discharge proviso, HCBS-FE funding, and staffing agency proviso will all be reviewed at the conference committee. Only HB2784 (CCRC bill) made it “above the line” for committee of the whole consideration this week. Since amendments were made in Senate Public Health and Welfare, it is anticipated a conference committee will be appointed to meet next week to work out the fine details. As a reminder, up to four additional bills can be inserted into a conference committee report. Conference committee reports cannot be amended by the chamber floors and instead just receive an up or down vote. The Governor also has the opportunity to veto any conference committee reports she wishes.

Coming up next week is the Subcommittee on Contract Nursing on April 1, 2, and 3. The committee will meet over lunch hour from noon to 1:30 p.m. each of those days and rather than hearing oral testimony will use the time to ask follow-up questions based on testimony submitted. LeadingAge Kansas and five provider members have submitted testimony. View the committee agenda here. 

Bill Tracker

View our bill tracker to see which bills are still alive.

Coming Up

Monday – Friday: Conference committees yet to be determined.

LeadingAge Kansas Member Data Collection on Certified Dietary Managers/Licensed Dietitians

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.

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