The Kansas legislative session moves fast -- here are the bills this 2023 session we are keeping an eye on.
Bills We Support
SB 2: Providing pathway to restricted driving privileges for individuals whose license was suspended or revoked due to failure to comply with a traffic citation. Read our testimony here.
HB 2010: Updates statutory cross-reference to provide proper jury instruction in cases when a defendant lacks the mental state to commit a crime.
HB 2028: Requiring criminal records to be automatically expunged in cases of acquittal or dismissal. Read our testimony here.
HB 2044: Act against discrimination relating to race including hair texture and protective styles historically associated with race. Read our testimony here.
HB 2076: Repealing the adoption protection act.
HB 2071: Extending terminal medical release to inmates in the custody of the department of corrections with a condition likely to cause death within 120 days.
HB 2073: Eliminating Juvenile Fines and Fees. Read our testimony here.
HB 2113: Prohibiting denial of a petition for expungement due to the petitioner's inability to pay outstanding costs, fees, fines or restitution, providing that the waiting period for expungement starts on the date of conviction or adjudication and authorizing expungement of a juvenile adjudication if the juvenile has not committed a felony offense in the previous two years. Read our testimony here.
Bills We Oppose
SB 5: Prohibiting the prescribing of drugs intended to cause an abortion using telemedicine and restricting the governor's power during a state of emergency to alter such prohibitions.
SB 12: Criminalizing gender-affirming healthcare. Read our testimony here.
SB 72: Stripping due process rights from defendants who use a language interpreter. Read our testimony here.
SB 180: Attempts to codify into law outdated, inaccurate, and underinclusive definitions of sex and families and tries to absolve the state of its responsibility to not discriminate against transgender people and codify into law a right to exclude trans people from athletics, restrooms, locker rooms, domestic violence shelters and other necessary spaces. Read our testimony here.
SB 233: Creating a civil cause of action against healthcare providers who provide gender affirming care to minors. Read our testimony here.
HB 2013: Requiring a runoff election between the top two candidates whenever a candidate for a statewide office fails to receive a majority of the votes. Read our testimony here.
HB 2021: Including provisions that undermine protections currently in place to limit extended incarceration of children in the juvenile system. Read our testimony here.
HB 2022: Providing for the appointment of the superintendent of the Kansas highway patrol by the attorney general, not the governor; transferring the duties of the governor relating to the Kansas highway patrol to the attorney general; granting jurisdiction of the Kansas highway patrol to the attorney general, a division to be known as the Kansas highway patrol.
HB 2037: Requiring verification of address for each registered voter and creating a crime for falsifying an address for purposes of voter registration.
HB 2053: Restricting the use of ballot boxes. Read our testimony here.
HB 2055: Prohibiting third parties from mailing advance voting ballot applications to registered voters.
HB 2056: Requiring all advance voting ballots to be returned by 7 p.m. on election day. Read our testimony here.
HB 2057: Regulating the use of remote ballot boxes for the return of advance voting ballots. Read our testimony here.
HB 2135: Establishing an income, privilege and premium tax credit for contributions to eligible charitable organizations operating pregnancy centers or residential maternity facilities. Read our testimony here.
HB 2190: Expanding certain election crimes and creating new ones, eliminating the criminal prosecutorial authority of the secretary of state and defining special elections. Including provisions that ban third-party voter registration sites and block public access to provisional data. Read our testimony here.
HB 2238: Banning transgender girls from sports and opening girls and women up to unnecessary scrutiny and potentially invasive examinations. Read our testimony here.
Bills We're Tracking
HB 2043: Requiring that discharged inmates be offered the opportunity to register to vote and that the Secretary of State develop a voter registration program that offers voter registration services at each accredited high school.
HB 2086: Amending statutes concerning election procedures and election officials. Read our testimony here.