Report Date 4/8/24

This past week was the final week before first adjournment. The week was spent entirely on Conference Committees including the budget and tax bills. They will now be off for three weeks before returning for the veto session.

Key things to watch for:

• There were a lot of bills from conference committees passed last week that will be going to the Governor. I will be updating the "Bills to Governor" report periodically during the next three weeks as the Governor acts on those bills.
• Two bills of high interest to law enforcement were passed and will go to the Governor. These were on Civil Asset Forfeiture and Drones.
• We still have a significant number of crime and criminal procedure bills in conference that we understand will be worked on in the Veto Session.
• Marijuana Legalization: Several things to watch here. First, there will be a move on April 30 to force the medical marijuana bill out of committee and bring it to debate on the floor. It will take a 2/3 majority vote to bring the bill out of committee. These attempts are rarely successful, but we must do some work over the break to make sure the votes are not there for it. That bill is SB135. Another marijuana bill, SB555, was tabled in committee, and a third, SB558, was introduced late and has not had a hearing.

Details available at the KPOA Legislation Webpage.

This is the time of year the topics in bills start getting moved around to different bill numbers. So you will find a “Where Did That Bill Go” report at the link above. One version lists them by topic, the other lists them by original bill number.

I am still working on verifying the information on the bill status and other bill update reports to be sure I haven't missed something getting moved in conference committee. I will be updating them over the next several days if I find new information.

Ed Klumpp
Legislative Liaison
eklumpp@cox.net