Fallout begins with declaration’s end

Kansas lawmakers abruptly decided to end the state’s COVID-19 disaster declaration Tuesday.

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June 17, 2021 - 9:41 AM

TOPEKA, Kansas — Kansas lawmakers abruptly decided to end the state’s COVID-19 disaster declaration Tuesday.

Republicans on the Legislative Coordinating Council canceled a meeting where they’d been set to consider Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s request for another extension.

That left the declaration to expire at midnight Tuesday more than 450 days after it was first issued, and further limited the governor’s waning powers to impose mask orders and take a range of other emergency actions.

The expiration will reverse all the governor’s executive orders issued in response to the pandemic. Lawmakers already had the power to overturn them.

Kelly said the move will hurt the state’s ability to respond to a health crisis and risk losing federal emergency funding amid efforts to vaccinate children before the coming school year.

“A state disaster response has never been, and should not be, political,” Kelly said in a statement. “The actions by a select few Republicans in the Legislature will make our response more difficult.”

Republicans defended the move, saying they warned the governor last month that the previous extension of the declaration was likely her last.

Republican Senate President Ty Masterson and other key legislative leaders issued a statement that said the governor had not provided enough justification for another extension of the declaration.

“After 15 months, it is time for Kansas to return to normal,” the Senate GOP leaders said. “All remaining efforts related to COVID-19 can and should take place under our normal procedures.”

Kelly’s office had been planning to let most of the executive orders expire, seemingly as a concession to Republicans, but she wanted two to remain. Those set COVID testing standards for nursing homes hit hard by the virus and let more health care workers administer the COVID vaccine.

In addition, Kelly’s office said the move will take away expanded pandemic food stamp benefits that go to 63,000 Kansas homes.

Questions remain about whether the state can still get federal emergency response funding without the disaster declaration. The answer won’t be fully clear until later this summer.

Kelly will also lose the ability to rely on National Guard troops to assist. It’s been transporting equipment and helping run state vaccine clinics.

The governor’s chief of staff, Will Lawrence, told reporters that National Guard troops had been an effective asset during the pandemic. He said from May 28 to June 10, 28,000 cases of protective equipment went out to local governments and the state administered 5,000 vaccines.

“You have to find other people to do some of this work,” Lawrence said. “That’s probably the biggest challenge.”

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