Newsletter - March 31, 2019

I visited with Vickie Harshbarger of Mosaic about state funding issues for the disability community. Mosaic in Liberal partners with people with intellectual disabilities to provide a meaningful life in a caring community.
Floor Votes
Below is a list of the bills passed in the house this week. If you would like more information on a bill, click the bill number to follow the link. If you get this newsletter via the newspaper go to:
and search by bill number:
HB 2018 – Creating the Kansas criminal justice reform commission.
HB 2054 – Providing for fully-insured association health plans.
HB 2118 - Providing income tax credits for aerospace and aviation program graduates and their employers.
HB 2154 - Making unemployment benefits available for federal and state employees who are required to work without pay.
HB 2137 – Legislative review of exceptions to disclosure of public records under the Kansas open records act.
HB 2173 – Establishing a commercial industrial hemp program.
HB 2274 – Requiring notification to patients that the effects of a medication abortion may be reversible.
HB 2244 - Authorizing the use of CBD oil to treat certain medical conditions.
HB 2326 - Recognizing licenses to carry a concealed firearm issued by other jurisdictions.
HB 2369 - Authorizing the secretary of transportation to designate or construct toll projects for new projects or expanded capacity; requires approval from local units of government, the Kansas turnpike authority and the state finance council.
HB 2371 - Providing for an increase in permit fees for oversize or overweight vehicles.
HB 2372 - Providing for an increase in registration fees for electric and hybrid vehicles.
HB 2402 - Authorizing certain business entities to hire physicians and chiropractors.
HB 2307 – Establishing non-covered dental benefits under health insurance plans and limitations on plan changes.
HB 2314 – Rehabilitation of abandoned property by cities.
HB 2389 – Requiring electronic prescriptions for certain controlled substances.
HB 2396 – Allowing use of certified drug abuse treatment programs for certain offenders convicted of unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances.
SB 15 – Amending the definition of "service-connected" in the Kansas police and firemen's retirement system.
SB 16 – Making amendments to the Kansas school equity and enhancement act and other statutes related to education.
SB 18 – Providing a process for the attorney general to enter into diversion agreements.
SB 20 – Extending the judicial branch surcharge to fund the costs of non-judicial personnel.
SB 25 – Appropriations for FY 2019, FY 2020, FY 2021 and FY 2022 for various state agencies.
SB 28 – Updating the expiration date of risk-based capital instructions.
SB 53 – Designating the official red and white wine grapes of Kansas.
SB 60 – Amending Kansas real estate commission licensing provisions for brokers and sales persons.
SB 63 – Regulating the use of lighting devices in transportation network company vehicles and requiring vehicles to stop at railroad crossings for on-track train equipment.
SB 66 – Exempting certain domestic insurers from filing enterprise risk reports.
SB 67 – Establishing the unclaimed life insurance benefits act.
SB 68 – Prohibiting cities from requiring a valid contract franchise ordinance for the provision of wireless telecommunications services.
SB 69 – Requiring an electric rate study of certain electric utilities.
SB 71 – Eliminating the expiration of the postsecondary technical education authority and requiring a report to the legislature.
SB 77 – Requiring the department for children and families to offer services to children with problem sexual behavior and to such child's family.
SB 78 – Regulating assignment of rights or benefits to a residential contractor under a property and casualty insurance policy insuring residential real estate.
SB 82 – Updating the state banking code.
SB 90 – Extending the tax credit under the center for entrepreneurship act to financial institutions and increasing the annual tax credit limit.
SB 94 – Establishing a minimum course duration for motor vehicle accident prevention courses.
SB 97– Division of vehicles registering fleet vehicles.
SB 128– Requiring at least nine safety drills to be conducted by schools each year including fire, tornado and crisis drills.
SB 199– Creating the AO-K to work program that allows certain adults to earn high school equivalency credentials by participating in career pathway oriented postsecondary classes.
SB 70 - Allowing for temporary permits for the selling and serving of alcoholic liquor.
SB 130 - Concerning elections; relating to advance ballots; concerning polling place.
HR 6018 – Requesting the federal government address water issues in the Arkansas River basis.
SCR 1605 - Constitutional amendment; reapportionment, deleting requirement for adjustment of census data for military personnel and students.
Constituent Services
Please reach out to me any time I can assist you with a state agency concern. I do ask that you send the request to me by email. This ensures that I get the information correctly to the agency we are working with. You can reach me when I’m in Topeka by email
Shannon.francis@house.ks.gov, by phone (785) 296-7466, or by mail at 300 SW 10
th Avenue, 274-W, Topeka, KS 66612. My office at the Capitol is 274W, second floor west wing.