Starting on Tuesday, the members of the Kansas House of Representatives spent all day in the House chambers debating and voting on a wide array of bills.
On Tuesday, February 26, 2019, the House debated twenty five bills and Wednesday, we debated eight additional bills.
Some of the bills that we discussed were:
House Bill 2084, which revises the Kansas 911 Act. The bill also repeals three outdated statutes in the existing act.
House Bill 2006 requires that the Kansas Department of Commerce create a database for information regarding economic development incentive programs.
A couple of bills that were debated affected the Board of Regents in the state of Kansas. House Bill 2209 authorizes the Board of Regents to purchase cybersecurity software. House Bill 2168 allows the University of Kansas to sell property located in Douglas County and Kansas State University to sell two properties, one located in Saline County while the other property is in Cherokee County. Wednesday morning I voted in support of all these bills.
The House completed final action on all of the bills debated this week.
Turnaround
The culmination of this week marks what is referred to as “Turnaround,” or simply the halfway point of the legislative session. The Senate and the House spent the majority of this week in our respective chambers debating bills from the bills’ chamber of origin. Most of the House bills introduced so far this session needed to be debated and voted on by Thursday of this week, February 28, 2019, or they would run the risk of not advancing in this session. The same can be said for bills in the Senate. When we return on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, our focus will be on bills that were debated and passed out of the Senate. The Senate will then evaluate the bills that we in the House have passed. That will be the major work for the committees until we adjourn for our April recess.
More Bills
House Bill 2225 requires that a driver stop the vehicle at least fifteen feet before crossing a railroad track if other track equipment, in addition to a train which is current law, is nearby. I did not support this bill because it is common sense to stop at a railroad crossing.
House Bill 2223 makes revisions to vineyard permits by now calling them producer permits. The bill also allows for wine producers to use a wider variety of agricultural products for wine production. I support this bill.
House Bill 2360 is a bill that came from the Children and Seniors committee, and it concerns background checks for employees and volunteers that have unsupervised access to children, the elderly, or individuals with disabilities. I voted, “yes.”
We had planned to debate House Bill 2173, the commercial hemp bill, however it was pulled from discussion this week. Due to the passage of the federal farm bill of 2018, which allows for the production of commercial hemp, we need to have this bill debated to clear up existing statute language that we passed last year.
Anytime that one would like to participate and listen to the developments of committee hearings or discussion on the House floor, one can tune in by listening to the audio footage at www.kslegislature.org.
Contact Information
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, follow on twitter at @waymaster4house, visit www.troywaymaster.com or email me at troy.waymaster@house.ks.gov. Also, if you happen to visit the statehouse, please let my office know.
It is a distinct honor to serve as your representative for the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and questions. I always appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas, as well.
Rep. Troy L. Waymaster, 109th District, serves as Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Born and raised in Russell, he continues today to be active in the farming operation of the family farm south of Bunker Hill today. Waymaster represents the Barton County communities of Albert, Olmitz, Galatia, Susank, Odin and Claflin.
