Each week during the 2024 Kansas legislative session, we will provide Johnson County lawmakers the opportunity to share their thoughts about what is happening in the state capitol.
Below is a submission from Democratic Rep. Susan Ruiz, who represents Kansas House District 23, covering parts of Lenexa, Overland Park and Shawnee.
Republican Rep. Adam Turk of Shawnee and Republican Rep. Sean Tarwater of Stilwell have also both been offered opportunities to submit their own columns later this week.
The views expressed in each Capitol Update are solely those of the lawmaker.
The 2024 legislative session has been filled with election year shenanigans.
The shenanigans included the same old tired bills aimed at chipping away at our public schools, including lack of special education funding, parental control in schools gone too far, roadblocks to access reproductive health, a ban on access to gender affirming care, casting DEI as the “boogie monster” and allowing a very limited hearing on Medicaid expansion and expecting Kansans to be satisfied with just a committee hearing on the issue.
Once again, most of the bills introduced or people paid to speak to a bill came from outside the state, representing ultra-conservative organizations and even one considered as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
All representatives and senators are up for re-election in 2024, and you can bet there were side deals going on regarding the budget, especially when we are tired and sleepy from working in the early morning hours. This is when the majority leadership has us debate the more consequential bills like the budget and taxes.
However, the Democratic Caucus and a few brave Republicans refuse to be bullied. We are the ones who ask in-depth questions about a bill or a budget item. We are often met with a patronizing look or outright refusal to answer direct questions. This is not how the Legislature is supposed to work. Did I mention this is an election year?
Each member of the Kansas House was elected to discharge the duties of their office. These duties include the introduction of bills and resolutions. Each year we agree to follow the Rules of the House.
These rules are used by members to get work done — plain and simple. These rules are used to manage the work of individual committees. After four years of requesting a hearing on Medicaid expansion, it was finally granted a hearing in the Health and Human Services Committee. But the bill never made it out of committee.
The 70% of Kansans who agree with Medicaid expansion were not just disappointed, but angry at a process that continues to disregard the will of the people. I know most of the representatives want to play by the rules, but the leadership in both houses doesn’t agree.
For example, Rule 1309 of the Kansas House of Representatives says, “Motion to withdraw a bill or resolution from a committee” can be used to keep a bad bill from coming forward and the same for a good bill.
Rule 1309 stipulates that a bill must be in a committee for 10 legislative days to withdraw it from a committee. HB2556 (aimed at Medicaid expansion) has been strategically moved between different committees for the last three weeks, making it impossible to move out of committee for a floor vote.
As a last-minute surprise, Democratic Sen. Dinah Sykes of Lenexa, the Senate Minority Leader, was able to successfully make the motion in the Senate last week.
Let me assure you: my votes are not influenced by the election year process. The many constituent emails, phone calls, individual meetings and public meetings had the greatest influence.
