TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature’s leadership postponed resumption of the session Wednesday to protect two-thirds of lawmakers considered at risk of being infected with COVID-19, a decision likely to compel Gov. Laura Kelly to issue a new statewide emergency declaration and potentially jeopardize millions of dollars in federal aid.
Lawmakers were scheduled to reconvene April 27, but concern about undermining health of House and Senate members led the bipartisan Legislative Coordinating Council to abandon that plan. The LCC voted unanimously to delay a decision on resumption of work at the Capitol to no later than May 6. The governor’s overarching emergency declaration for Kansas will expire May 1.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman and Senate President Susan Wagle, two Republicans on the LCC, said the governor could retain all her emergency authority by issuing a new disaster declaration. The process doesn’t allow her to simply extend the existing order.
“I can’t see, our attorneys can’t see, where they can extend the current declaration,” Ryckman said.
The Kansas Constitution requires legislators meet publicly in Topeka and take final action votes while physically present in House or Senate chambers. Thirty of 40 senators and 78 of 125 representatives are considered at risk of contracting COVID-19 because they are at least 60 years old.
Wagle, who is a candidate for U.S. Senate, said the governor created procedural challenges for continuation of the state’s emergency response by filing a lawsuit in defense of an executive order restricting church crowds to no more than 10. The LCC voted to reverse that order, but the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the LCC didn’t have power to block Kelly’s mass-gathering directive on church attendance. Two Baptist churches subsequently filed suit in federal court.
“We’re in a situation where the governor wants to work with us as long as we approve all of her orders, but when we have a disagreement all the sudden she doesn’t want to work with us and she sued us,” Wagle said.
Kelly said there was a “little bit of irony” that some legislative leaders pressuring her to prepare for reopening the Kansas economy also concluded it was unsafe for House and Senate members to be in Topeka.
GOP warned
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Democratic member of the LCC, said Senate conservatives initiated problems with the governor’s crisis authority. The House accepted the Senate’s flawed approach to undercutting the governor before adjourning in mid-March, he said.
“Now,” Hensley said, “instead of admitting to it, they are pointing fingers in any direction but their own.”
Will Lawrence, the governor’s chief of staff, said Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, informed legislators that their resolution placing limits on the governor raised separation-of-powers problems.
“The LCC was warned — prior to taking their action — that it lacked the authority to revoke the governor’s executive orders,” Lawrence said. “They chose to act anyway.”
The governor has asked legislative leaders to do what was necessary to prevent loss of federal funding and premature revocation of a series of state emergency orders. Refusal by lawmakers to act risks liability coverage for first responders and others caring for sick Kansans.
“In no way can we let those orders expire,” Kelly said.
On Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported the number of deaths increased to 110 and positive tests reached 2,211. There are nearly 450 positive tests in Ford, Finney, Seward and Lyon counties, the four counties where KDHE says at least 168 employees at meatpacking plants tested positive. Meanwhile, officials said a female employee at Larned State Hospital tested positive for COVID-19.
