The Kansas Legislature was busy Friday, both sending bills to Governor Laura Kelly for her approval and overriding bills that didn’t.
Governor Kelly had vetoed House Bill 2635, which exempted crisis pregnancy centers not offering abortion-related services from rules and regulations about information they must divulge about their services and resources. Kelly says Kansas residents don’t want the government in women’s private medical decisions, so the government shouldn’t spend tax money interfering with those decisions. Senate President Ty Masterson says the bill protects the centers, as well as their education and work towards life-affirming care, while Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins says the governor’s veto contradicted her stated goal of supporting choice.
The override vote was 30-9 in the Senate and 87-35 in the House. 17th District Senator Mike Argabright of Olpe voted for the override, as did 13th District Representative Duane Droge of Eureka and 76th District Representative Brad Barrett of Osage City. 60th District Representative Mark Schreiber of Emporia voted against the override.
Separately, lawmakers override the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 368, designed to give certain income tax deductions to health care sharing ministries. Governor Kelly had mentioned concerns about lack of regulations and uncertainty of covering medical bills as reasons for her override.
The Senate overrode the veto 30-9. The House override 87-37. Argabright, Barrett and Droge voted for the override, while Schreiber voted against it.
In unrelated votes, the House and Senate have passed House Bills 2569 and 2437 dealing with election procedures.
HB 2569 has a provision that could end what is called no-excuse mail voting — meaning any voter can request and cast an absentee ballot without giving a reason — if a Kansas judge says the state’s signature verification statute is invalid. Voting rights challenges would have to be heard in Shawnee County. It passed the Senate 28-12 and the House 78-45.
HB 2437 sets up a biannual check of drivers licenses and state voter information and comparison with the federal SAVE, or Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements information. It passed the Senate 28-12 and the House 80-43.
Barrett and Droge were for both bills, while Argabright and Schreiber were against.
