Kansas Republicans claim enough support to call special session on vaccine mandates
Kansas Republicans predict they have enough support to call the Legislature into special session later this month to fight COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by businesses and the federal government.
Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Ron Ryckman, the two highest-ranking GOP legislators, both announced publicly on Tuesday their support of a special session — a development that may prove crucial to getting rank-and-file lawmakers on board with the effort.
A special session would be an extraordinary response to the backlash against vaccine mandates, triggered by directives from President Joe Biden’s administration.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who has been critical of the federal rules, could potentially face difficult choices about whether to sign or veto legislation that emerges from the GOP-led effort. Kelly’s office declined to comment, but she said last week she didn’t believe a special session would be necessary.
The session would be narrowly focused on two proposals released by Masterson, an Andover Republican. One would restrict private and public employers from probing the sincerity of religious beliefs of employees seeking exemptions from requirements. The other would aim to ensure those fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine can receive unemployment benefits.
“We’ve had conversations around taking up these particular protections. Those motions are underway currently,” Masterson said.
The tentative date for the session would be Nov. 22, according to Masterson, giving lawmakers enough time to pass legislation and override any potential vetoes from Kelly before the federal vaccine requirements take effect. One directive, covering employees of federal contractors, is effective Dec. 8. The other, mandating large companies, takes effect Jan. 4.
Republican attorneys general, including Kansas’s Derek Schmidt, have challenged both laws in federal court. Over the weekend a judge in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on enforcement of the private employer mandate.
“Kansans should not be forced to choose between their personal beliefs and their jobs,” Ryckman said in a statement.
Special sessions are unusual in Kansas and special sessions called by the Legislature are even more rare. Typically, governors are responsible for recalling lawmakers to Topeka.
Two-thirds of representatives and two-thirds of senators must sign a petition to call a special session. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers, but can afford very few defections unless they also have Democratic support.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether a petition has already been drafted or how much time lawmakers would need to circulate it.
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer , a Wichita Democrat, he did not believe any Democrat in the Legislature would support the special session. As the issue progresses through court he said there was little the Legislature is empowered to do.
“It’s probably a waste of time and money,” he said. “I think we ought to wait and see.”
Momentum growing
Masterson told reporters he was “pretty sure” enough senators support a special session, while Rep. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican, said that in the House he is “very optimistic that we’ll get bipartisan support on calling this session.”
Owens said calls for a special session gained momentum as lawmakers coalesced around the narrow plan to focus on unemployment benefits and religious liberty.
“What changed is we now have a plan and that’s what we were waiting on,” Owens said.
Masterson announced the tentative late November date for the special session at the close of Tuesday’s meeting of the special committee on Government Overreach and the Impact of COVID-19 Mandates. The panel on also formally recommended a special session.
After hearing from constitutional attorneys, including Republican Kris Kobach, who is running for attorney general, the committee voted to hold public hearings on the proposals Friday.
The proposals are similar to a law passed in Iowa last month.
Masterson said his focus is on protecting religious liberty.
“Putting somebody in the place of God is a bad place to be,” Masterson said.
Democrats on the committee, Rep. John Carmichael and Rep. Vic Miller, both said they were concerned the proposals create more problems than they solve and that carveouts for religious liberty already exist for vaccine requirements in Kansas.
One of the bills would prevent private businesses and federal contractors within the state from questioning an employee’s claims of religious beliefs as justification for an exemption.
If an employee said in writing that they were religiously opposed to getting a vaccine, the employer would have to accept that.
“They are not going to look at the sincerity. Period,” said Jason Thompson, an attorney in the Kansas Office of Revisors of Statutes.
Jeffery Jackson and Richard Levy, constitutional law professors at the University of Kansas and Washburn University, both said the bill would not impact businesses mandating vaccines in compliance with federal guidelines.
Any federal rules on religious exemptions, they said, would supersede the Kansas law.
“If it’s within OSHA’s authority to do what they did then there’s nothing the state can do that would have any legal effect,” Jackson said.
Unemployment benefits
The second measure under consideration would ensure that employees fired for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine — or who cannot find work because they are not vaccinated — to receive unemployment benefits.
The bill would create an allowance specifically for any Kansan who applies for an exemption to vaccine rules and is denied.
Though Republicans in Kansas have historically opposed expanding unemployment benefits, Masterson said he anticipated there would be no financial impact if businesses grant all exemption requests.
“The anticipation would be that our employers would not do that discriminatory action,” Masterson said.
Carmichael, the Wichita Democrat, said he anticipated the policy could create a large financial strain on the unemployment trust fund.
“This is the unemployment passport for the unvaccinated and I really think by the time cooler heads look at the cost of this proposal it will not be nearly as attractive,” Carmichael said.
Additionally, the proposals are likely to create friction between Kansas Republicans and the business community that would need to pay into the unemployment trust fund. The Kansas Chamber of Commerce told lawmakers last month that businesses should have the right to require their employees be vaccinated.
In an email to The Star Tuesday morning, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, a spokeswoman for the chamber, said the chamber will oppose any proposals that prevent employers from appealing unemployment claims by those who wouldn’t get vaccinated and lose their jobs.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon Chamber CEO Alan Cobb said the proposal could cost at least $606 million from the state’s unemployment trust fund.
“Allowing unemployment benefits as the proposed legislation recommends could cause significant financial harm to the state’s UI trust fund, negatively impact its solvency, and lead to increased taxes on the Kansas businesses who are struggling to recover from the pandemic,” Cobb said.
Dan Murray, a lobbyist for the Kansas National Federation of Independent Businesses, said his group would work with lawmakers to ensure small businesses don’t bear the costs of any expansion of unemployment benefits connected to federal mandates.
“We are always concerned about small businesses being forced to pay higher UI taxes, particularly given our ongoing small business recovery,” Murray said.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Kansas Republicans claim enough support to call special session on vaccine mandates."
