Republicans advance changes to Kansas Department of Labor

Republican lawmakers decided Tuesday to move forward with changes in staffing practices at the Kansas Department of Labor, despite warnings from a federal agency that it could jeopardize about $18 million the state gets for employment programs.

A House-Senate conference committee executed a parliamentary maneuver that will allow four Republicans on the committee to send Senate Bill 154 to a final vote over the objections of the committee’s two Democratic members.

The lawmakers took that action after the department’s chief lawyer assured them the U.S. Department of Labor can’t strip the state of funding – an opinion that federal labor officials dispute.

The main section of the bill would cap the state’s maximum unemployment benefit at the current level of $474 a week and keep it there until the average wage earned by Kansas workers rises by 9 percent.

The part that has drawn the most controversy would do away with a requirement that hiring decisions be based on merit exams administered by the state secretary of labor. In addition, it would allow employees to endorse and contribute to partisan candidates and participate in party political groups.

The bill was put on hold Monday to allow the state department to respond to a federal letter warning the state could lose funds to run the department if the staffing system isn’t “merit-based,” as required by federal law.

Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, released that letter during committee deliberations Monday.

Brad Burke, the department’s deputy secretary and chief attorney, said only the governor or state labor secretary can certify the system is merit-based, and the governor’s decision is final.

He said those are the rules of the federal Office of Personnel Management, “which has the federal authority to interpret whether a state has a merit staffed policy.

He said he was confident the state would win a court case against the federal Labor Department if it tried to strip Kansas of funding.

The Kansas department receives $17.5 million in federal funding to administer the unemployment insurance program and $660,000 to run employment offices.

In Tuesday’s hearing, Holland followed up with an e-mail from Carrianna Suiter, the U.S. Department of Labor’s deputy director of intergovernmental affairs.

She said they had confirmed that, “as stated in the letter we sent, (U.S.) DOL is responsible for making decisions regarding conformity” with federal unemployment compensation law.

“I’m not sure why KSDOL is saying this is an OPM (Office of Personnel Management) issue,” the e-mail continued.

Holland said state officials “are obviously wrong” in their interpretation of the rules for getting the federal money.

“You are held accountable and if you don’t play by the rules, you get it taken away,” he said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 8:01 PM with the headline "Republicans advance changes to Kansas Department of Labor."