While the Kansas legislature has discussed several worker and teacher anti-bargaining bills this session, how have Kansas farmers fared with bargaining this session?

“Is collective bargaining good for Kansans?” is the subject of a Saturday afternoon event starting at 1:30 p.m. at the Salina Public Library, Prescott Room, organized by the Salina Area Workers Coalition.

Farm leaders making presentations will include Donn Teske, Onaga, Kansas, president of the Kansas Farmers Union. Teske will give an overview of current legislation, including corporate farming laws, and he will explain current programs the Kansas Farmers Union offers.

Also, Oren Holle, Marysville, Kansas, President of Organic Farmers Relationship Marketing (OFARM), a multistate group marketing and bargaining association will tell his group’s story about farmer bargaining with organic crops and livestock.
In addition, Roger Schneider, Salina, local marketing representative for the Kansas Organic Producers Association (KOPA) will also explain how KOPA uses bargaining for their members.

The presentations will be followed by a question and answer session. The general public is invited. For more information, call Joan Ratzlaff at 825-0781 or Greg Stephens at 819-6887.

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran has introduced a concurrent resolution co-sponsored by 28 of his Senate colleagues which outlines specific criteria that must be met for a United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to be ratified by the U.S. Senate and recognized as customary international law. On Monday, March 18, 2013, the Obama Administration will continue its reversal of the policies of both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush and engage in a new round of negotiations of the U.N. ATT in New York. The companion resolution was introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA).

“We must avoid a situation where the Administration, due to its continued willingness to negotiate, feels pressured to sign a treaty that violates our constitutional rights,” Sen. Moran said. “It is now clear that Congress must reiterate its concerns with the latest draft of the treaty, and I am pleased to be leading this effort once again with Congressman Kelly.”

The current ATT treaty text undermines the Constitutional freedoms of American gun owners and does not exempt civilian firearms from its scope or recognize the inherent right to self-defense. If the ATT is supposed to be concerned only with the international trade in conventional weapons, Sen. Moran believes it needs to exempt domestic, civilian firearm ownership and use from its scope, as governed by national laws and constitutions.

Additionally, a near-universal treaty like the ATT will reward dictatorships with privileges that should be reserved for sovereign democracies. Because the U.N. includes every nation in the world, it is not a suitable instrument for negotiating substantive treaties on a subject as profoundly divisive as control over the means of national defense.

“If the ATT could work, it would not be necessary,” Sen. Moran said. “There is no reason to believe the ATT will succeed where past U.N. Security Council Arms Embargoes have failed. Smothering the world with law will not affect nations who choose not to respect the treaty, or are too ill-governed to enforce it.”

(AP) – A bill prohibiting public employee unions in Kansas from deducting money from members’ paychecks to help finance political activities is advancing in the Legislature.

The Senate is scheduled to debate the measure Thursday. The GOP-dominated chamber is expected to pass it.

Supporters of the bill say they want to prevent public employee unions from funneling money deducted from members’ paychecks to candidates or causes opposed by those members. They also contend that state and local government agencies processing payrolls shouldn’t be entangled in such transactions.

Opponents argue there’s no need for the legislation because union members must agree to any deductions. Public employee unions say the measure is meant to hurt their fundraising and is another politically motivated attempt by many Republicans to undermine groups that overwhelmingly support Democrats.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Utah congressman has introduced legislation to scrap the design for a memorial honoring President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington, citing objections from Ike’s family and the project’s cost.

Republican Rep. Rob Bishop introduced the bill Wednesday. He’s proposing a new design competition and seeks to eliminate $100 million in future funding for the current design by architect Frank Gehry.

Eisenhower’s family has called Gehry’s design “too extravagant.” Gehry proposed a memorial park with statues of the president and World War II hero, framed by large metal tapestries depicting Ike’s boyhood home in Kansas.

Bishop says lawmakers need to reevaluate the project.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas State Board of Education will send a letter to Gov. Sam Brownback and state lawmakers reminding them of the board’s authority to set state education standards.

The board voted Tuesday to send the letter because a House committee is considering a bill that would force the state board to scrap its current guidelines in math and English, called Common Core standards.  Some lawmakers have said the Common Core standards are federal intrusion into state education decisions.

Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker told the state board that it has the authority to set standards in Kansas. She says some lawmakers have incorrect information about the why Kansas accepted the standards.

On Wednesday, the United States House of Representatives passed the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013 (H.R. 890). Congressman Tim Huelskamp voted for this bill; he believes strongly in the effectiveness of work requirements and that these requirements should be extended to other federal programs as well.

In July 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced that it would consider waiver requests from states that found the work requirements for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to be overly burdensome. DHHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, decided to consider waiver requests despite the evidence that work requirements help people move from dependence on TANF benefits to gainful employment. While President Obama and Secretary Sebelius may choose to define success in terms of the number of people receiving government handouts, program success should be based on the number of people who no longer need assistance. By waiving work requirements, this Administration is wrongly seeking to undo the tremendous gains achieved through bipartisan welfare reform in the late 1990s.  H.R. 890 rescinds the order, and prohibits any Administration from waiving these successful work requirements in the future.

Huelskamp released this statement following the passage of H.R. 890

“Last year, President Obama gutted welfare work requirements in an election year bid to garner more votes.  And apparently that did help the President’s re-election efforts.  However, waiving these work requirements not only harms the hard-working American taxpayer, it harms those on welfare.  We should send welfare recipients the message that getting a job and working is a good thing – not that welfare dependency should be a way of life.  This new bill will reinforce work requirements, increase productivity, enhance the pride and character of those on welfare, and lessen Americans’ dependence on Washington.”