Last week in the Kansas legislature was turnaround week. This is generally thought to be the halfway point of the legislative session. All non-exempt bills had to be out of the house of origin by February 22
. Only bills that have been introduced by or referred to exempt committees will be allowed to have action in the house of origin from this point in the session forward. Due to the turnaround deadline, there was significant action on both the House and Senate floor this week.
The speed of the legislature begins to increase from this point forward. Non-exempt committees will have a little more than three weeks to wrap up their work. The deadline for second house consideration is March 29. The biggest issue to likely be considered during the latter half of the session will be K-12 education funding. There is still a lot of "hall talk" regarding the best path forward on that matter, but there has been no clear resolution to the matter presented at this point in time.
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