Five debates to expect in the next legislative session

Kansas lawmakers will return to Topeka in a little more than a month and many of them are already crafting bills to introduce in the upcoming session.

Fixing the state’s budget hole and writing a new school finance formula promise to dominate the Kansas Legislature’s workload in 2017, but there’s a host of other issues that the Legislature could tackle when it convenes in January.

Here’s a preview of some of the issues that could be debated in the coming session.

Medicinal hemp: The Kansas House passed legislation in 2015 with bipartisan support that would have enabled medicinal hemp to be used to treat seizure disorders, but the bill hit a dead stop in the Senate, where several key members objected to the legislation, which they saw as the first step toward marijuana legalization.

Several of the bill’s most outspoken opponents in the Senate did not seek re-election or lost their races this year, and it’s possible that the new members could be more open to approving the legislation, which is known as “Otis’ Law,” after Otis Reed, a 5-year-old boy whose family moved from Lawrence to Colorado two years ago so he could get treatment for his seizures.

Rep. John Wilson, D-Lawrence, the bill’s sponsor, said that he’s in talks with other lawmakers “to determine the appetite” for taking another run at passing the bill.

Wilson said that one thing that could complicate the effort is the election of Republican Donald Trump as president.

The Obama administration did not interfere with the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana at the state level, but Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is known for his hard-line stance against marijuana and could try to block states from allowing the sale of cannabis products, including hemp oil.

However, Wilson also said that the fact that seven states passed ballot measures this year to legalize either recreational or medical marijuana, including more conservative states like North Dakota and Arkansas, shows that there may be support to do something even more expansive than his bill, which is narrowly tailored to only allow the treatment for seizure disorders through non-intoxicating hemp oil.

Transparency: The Legislature passed multiple measures last session intended to increase transparency, including approval of live-streaming of legislative committee hearings and the closure of a private e-mail loophole in the state’s open records act. Elected officials had been able to shield e-mails from disclosure by using their personal, rather than work, e-mails.

Rep. Stephanie Clayton, R-Overland Park, is crafting another piece of legislation, which she says will bring greater transparency to the legislative process.

Clayton wants to require that all bills be available to the public on the Legislature’s website for 24 hours before they can be voted on and in the case of budget bills, 48 hours.

“To me, this is the next thing,” Clayton said. “We’ve seen so many bills run through that have not been available in print or online.”

Clayton said this bill would benefit the public and the Legislature alike by increasing constituents’ access to information. She noted that lawmakers have voted on some bills in recent session before they had even had a chance to read them.

“This is a bill that will keep the Legislature honest,” she said.

It’s possible that the policy could be adopted as a rule when the House and Senate approve joint rules at the start of the session, but Clayton said it’s important to have the requirement in statute so it can’t be suspended. A rule that the House cannot begin debates after midnight, another transparency measure, was repeatedly suspended during the past two sessions.

Guns on campus: Public universities in Kansas will have to open their campuses to concealed firearms in July unless the Legislature changes the law currently on the books.

Faculty and students at several of the state’s universities have raised concerns about the policy, which was passed as part of a 2013 bill that opened up public buildings to firearms.

Universities must open their campuses to guns starting in July 2017 under the law. Opposition to this policy increased when the Legislature eliminated the requirement that people must go through training to conceal and carry in 2015.

Sen. Jeff Longbine, R-Emporia, who plans to run for vice president of the Senate, brought an amendment last year that would have exempted the universities for an additional four years. It was voted down 26-11, but Longbine said that the issue could come up again this session.

Longbine, who cited the concerns of faculty and student senates, said that legislation to delay implementation would be more likely to pass if it was introduced as a bill so that both sides could present evidence at a hearing.

He said it’s difficult to predict how the new Legislature would act on the measure, noting that between the House and the Senate 58 of the 165 members will be new.

Medicaid: The state’s Medicaid system will be a major focus this session, according Rep. Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, who chairs a House Health and Human Services Committee.

The state is set to approve new contracts for KanCare, its privatized Medicaid system, which provides health care to disabled and low-income residents. Those contracts, which are set to be approved next year, will be scrutinized by lawmakers.

Hawkins wants to roll back a 4 percent cut Gov. Sam Brownback made to Medicaid provider reimbursement rates in May.

Brownback made the cut as a short-term budget fix, but Hawkins said that it threatens to cut off medical access because many doctors and dentists can’t afford to continue to provide treatment to Medicaid recipients under the lowered reimbursement rates. Hawkins said the state could make up for the cost by increasing a tax on health maintenance organizations.

There’s also a question mark over whether there’s another run at expanding Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act.

The gains made by moderate Republicans and Democrats in the election increases the likelihood that an expansion bill could pass the Legislature, but the long-term future of the Affordable Care Act is uncertain after Trump’s election.

Hawkins said he sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation seeking clarity about the future of Medicaid at the federal level, noting that Trump supports changing Medicaid to a block grant system.

Sex education: Two pieces of legislation could resurface in the new session dealing with sex education in schools.

House leaders canceled a debate last session on a bill, which would have required schools to get permission from students’ parents before providing them with sex-ed. The bill has been pushed by social conservatives for multiple sessions, but it has failed to advance to the governor’s desk.

One reason that House leaders canceled the debate last session, according to moderate Republicans, is that moderates had planned to bring an amendment to establish “Erin’s Law.”

The law, which has already been adopted by 26 states, requires public schools to teach students about sexual abuse with the goal of preventing students from falling victim to it and informing parents and students how to respond if they suspect it is happening.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Five debates to expect in the next legislative session."