The Senate spent 4 days “on the floor” debating bills this week. Only exempt committees could hold meetings. We passed 45 bills, and sent numerous bills to the Governor’s desk for his signature. Next week the conference committees will meet and hopefully reach an agreement so bills passed by the House and Senate may be delivered to the Governor. A conference committee is comprised of the Chair, Vice-Chair and Ranking Minority member of the House committee and Senate committee that the bill was processed in. If the bill was changed in the second chamber in any way the original chamber can either approve the changes (concur) and the bill goes to the Governor, OR the conference committee can meet and discuss the changes.
The most controversial bill on Monday was HB 2044 which is known as the Bridge to a Healthy Kansas bill, also known as Medicaid Expansion. The expansion of Medicaid will give Kansas the opportunity to draw down federal dollars to help insure 150,000 Kansans living without healthcare. They are essentially the people who make too much to qualify for assistance and too little to afford insurance on their own. Federal tax dollars paid by Kansans are now going to other states that have expanded eligibility rather than being returned to Kansas to help those in our community. The bill that establishes the KanCare Bridge to a healthy Kansas and establishes the Clubhouse Community-Based Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program to be administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). With regard to the KanCare Bridge, the bill would expand Medicaid eligibility on 1-1-2018 to include any adult who is under 65 years of age, who is not pregnant and whose income does not exceed 138% of the federal poverty level. The bill contains work referral requirements and premium payment assistance. The bill would establish the KanCare Bridge to a healthy Kansas program drug rebate fund and the KanCare Bridge to a healthy Kansas program privilege fee fund to be expended for Medicaid medical assistance payments. All moneys collected by KDHE from drug rebates connected to program beneficiaries would be deposited into the drug rebate fund, and all moneys collected from privilege fees connected to program beneficiaries would be deposited into the privilege fee fund. There are reporting requirements and an establishment of a KanCare Bridge to a Healthy Kansas Working Group.
After a lengthy debate the bill was advanced to final action. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 25-14 to pass the bill. I have heard from hundreds of people in our district, our local hospitals and many medical providers about Medicaid expansion. The Governor received the bill Wednesday and vetoed the bill on Thursday morning, The House made a motion to override the bill the same morning. It takes 84 votes in the House to override the veto and 27 in the Senate. Due to the absence of one of the House members who was attending a funeral out of town, the House delayed action until next week. If the House of Representatives successfully overrides the Governor’s veto, the override will be taken up by the Senate.
The bill directs KDHE to terminate the program over a 12-month period if the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) falls below the percentages established under the federal health care and education reconciliation act of 2010.
94% calendar year 2018
93% calendar year 2019
90% calendar year 2020 and each year thereafter
Debate on this bill was robust, especially in the wake of the Republican-led Congress’s inability to push through an anticipated repeal and replace vote on the Affordable Care Act, which would have dramatically altered Medicaid and states’ expansion eligibility.
The House now has 30 days to vote to override the veto. If the House overrides the veto with 2/3 majority, the bill will then come to the Senate for a vote; if the House fails to override and sustains the veto, the bill is dead for this legislative session.
Other Senate activities. On Monday, our Ways and Means Sub-committee agreed with the House on changes to the rescission budget bill of 2017.
On Thursday, the Senate passed Senate Substitute for SB 189, an appropriations bill containing FY 2017 adjustments and a two-year budget for FY 2018 and FY 2019. The proposed budget includes additional funding for the University of Kansas and Kansas State University to moderately restore the cuts both these schools received in 2016. It also includes funding for a 2% pay raise for state employees, who haven’t seen an across-the-board increase in 10 years. (The raise does not apply to legislators.) The bill removed many of the Governor’s budget proposals, such as selling off the state’s future tobacco settlement payments in exchange for a lump sum and consolidating all K-12 school employees into a single state-run health plan.
During debate on the floor, an amendment was brought to allow the Senate to wait until May, once updated revenue estimates are received, to decide whether to add roughly $140 million to make a final quarterly payment into KPERS in 2018 and another $198 million at the end of fiscal year 2019. The bill would spend roughly $6.3 billion from the State General Fund and close to $16 billion from all funds. This does not include any additional funding for K-12 education, which is being handled through separate bills in both the House and Senate.
SB 138 changes the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) pertaining to working after retirement. The bill would exempt from the earnings cap those retirees who retired on July 1, 2009, or later; were retired for more than 60 days prior to July 1, 2017; and were subsequently hired in a school position requiring a license. Under current law, only retirees who retired prior to May 1, 2015, are eligible for this exemption. The special exemption, which is scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2020, would become permanent. The special education and certified hard-to-fill positions would be eliminated; the exemption for licensed school personnel would remain. The annual duty of the State Board of Education to certify the top five hard-to-fill positions would be repealed.
Next week is the last legislative week before first adjournment, so debating Conference Committee agreements will be a top priority. While we’ve passed a large number of bills aimed at bettering Kansas, we know we still have a few large agenda items to address before gaveling out in May-including balancing. our budget and creating a school finance formula.