TOPEKA, Kansas — In a one-day marathon session that wrapped up a legislative year upended by the coronavirus, Kansas lawmakers reined in the governor’s powers to respond to the public health crisis.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly sharply criticized the all-night rush that drafted the bill, but she stopped short of threatening a veto.
A wide-ranging bill that passed after sunrise Friday lets the governor’s emergency declaration — notably, the power to shut down businesses — extend through the end of May. After that, she’d need a panel of lawmakers to have it go longer.
And businesses that broke with the governor’s orders would face just civil penalties, rather than the misdemeanor criminal charges they’d currently face.
Meanwhile, efforts to expand Medicaid to cover the health care bills of another 130,000 or so people in the state evaporated for another year.
Lawmakers also didn’t adjust state spending to account for a dramatic drop in tax revenue — yet another effect of the economic shutdown triggered by the pandemic. A special session could bring legislators back to Topeka to balance the books, the governor could make cuts herself or any action may wait until next year.
Fears of spreading the coronavirus cut the first part of the session short. And ongoing concerns about infections resulted in a single, particularly contentious day that made clear the pandemic hasn’t pushed aside partisan rivalries.
“It is our job to oversee this governor, to oversee her emergency orders,” Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said. “It is our job to open up Kansas safely.”
After some extended comments from a Democrat, the Senate’s Republican majority leader said he would use a procedural move to end debate and move bills forward as quickly as possible.
“I’m basically out of patience,” Sen. Jim Denning said.
The top Democrat in the Senate said the high-speed process, which ended in a vote Friday morning, meant lawmakers couldn’t have a full debate and offer amendments.
“We ought to close the blinds and turn out the lights because this is a dark day for democracy,” Sen. Anthony Hensley said.
And House Democratic Leader Tom Sawyer called the day “simply bad governing.”
“This is no time for fulfilling political agendas,” Sawyer said.
Republicans argued they had little choice but to hurry bills through.
