2025 Statehouse Snapshot: Week 7
Kansas Action for Children | February 28, 2025
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Congress Considering Devastating Cuts to Medicaid
While the Kansas Legislature focused on non-health priorities this week, the U.S. House passed a funding proposal that would require Congress to cut Medicaid by $880+ billion and SNAP by $230+ billion across the next decade. Any Medicaid cuts at this level will directly harm Kansas kids, people living with disabilities, pregnant women, and the elderly, particularly risking programs that enable Kansans to live and thrive in their communities.
The U.S. House is deliberately choosing to pursue tax cuts for the wealthiest in the world over making sure food and health assistance help our most vulnerable Kansans. There is still time for Congress to back down from these drastic cuts, so now is the time to contact the federal delegation to express outrage at these misaligned, harmful priorities. In addition to calling their offices, we recommend you sign this petition from our partner, the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas.
Funding cuts like Congress is considering remind us how public health can be impacted by health policy. With the ongoing Texas measles outbreak continuing to grow to around 150 cases along with one death, ensuring all children have access to immunizations, doctor visits, and other services is more important than ever. States beyond Texas are now reporting cases related to the outbreak. It’s a troubling but critical reminder for why it’s so important to follow and keep longstanding public health policies in place.
Child Care on the Move in House Commerce
The House Commerce Committee set their focus on child care this week, culminating in conversations about the bipartisan early childhood proposal. Seeking to revive the work to streamline the early childhood governance structure, HB 2294 is a result of multiple years of effort.
In the hearing on HB 2294, multiple proponents voiced support for the benefits Kansas families and child care providers will feel when the early childhood governance system can operate within one office. The possibility of greater accountability, easier budget and administrative monitoring, and fewer burdens and barriers for families and providers offer hope that children can have the highest quality experiences in their formative years.
While there are a few pieces of the bill that give us great pause – particularly about the possibility of dangerous deregulation efforts – we are hopeful lawmakers can continue in a bipartisan way. There is still time for lawmakers to adjust some of the bill language in response to community concerns, and we will continue to work toward a safe, sustainable compromise to address child care challenges in the state.
Next Week Is Tax Week – Will Tax Committees Move Forward with Caution or Reckless Abandon?
As we gear up for a very active week ahead in the Kansas Legislature’s tax committees, we continue to notice striking similarities in how state and federal lawmakers are approaching government funding.
At the federal level, the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution on Tuesday that provides for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that is to be partially offset by $2 trillion in federal budget cuts, which will devastate the Medicaid and SNAP programs.
Similarly, the Kansas Legislature is looking to free up money for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest taxpayers and paying for them by cutting the state budget. The tax cut conversation will get started in earnest next week when the tax committees are set to hear two bills that would put Kansas on track for a flat tax – for both corporations and individuals – and a bill that would trade reduced income tax rates for economic development and low-income housing programs.
Since the income tax is the only progressive tax we have, the majority of the benefit of these types of cuts would go to the wealthiest taxpayers and corporations, leaving everyday Kansans to bear even more of the burden.
Lawmakers do have options, however, to sustainably lower many Kansans’ tax burden. A child tax credit, for example, would deliver relief to families feeling the strain of higher prices without shifting the corporate tax liability onto the working class. And it just so happens that the Senate Tax Committee found a few minutes next week to hear a bill that would do just that; tune in next week to find out how it goes!
Economic Security Advocates Gather in Salina
Some KAC staff joined other advocates in Salina to talk about food insecurity. It was encouraging to be in a room with nearly 100 Kansans who are passionate about addressing Kansas hunger. The group identified some of the gaps that exist today in the state’s food system and workshopped policy ideas to close those gaps. Advocates across the state committed to supporting food pantries, streamlining the public assistance application process, scaling up the Food Is Medicine Initiative, and other initiatives to help Kansas families get the food they need to feed their families.
As Congress proposes deep cuts to SNAP — the most effective tool we have in this country for addressing hunger — developing a robust and resilient food system is more important today than ever. The budget resolution passed by the U.S. House would cut nearly $230 billion from the SNAP program; estimates expect this funding loss to result in food assistance nationwide decreasing by more than 20%.
However, details on who will lose benefits or by how much have yet to be determined. It should be noted that this historic disinvestment in helping low-income families put food on the table is not being done to reduce spending. Instead, the bill cuts meager food assistance payments for millions of people to give the wealthiest 1% of Americans a tax cut of $62,000 per year.
Education Funding Task Force Meets
The first meeting of the Education Funding Task Force kicked off this week to understand the fiscal needs and opportunities Kansas schools face when thinking of state budgeting for public education. The Task Force learned about the various factors that impact the education funding formula determining the necessary appropriations for each Kansas student. These factors determine a district’s funding levels, considering everything from bilingual services, enrollment rates, transportation costs, and more.
The Legislature faces a deadline for decisions about how the state’s funding formula will progress forward. The current formula will sunset on July 1, 2027, so work completed now can guide Kansas in equitably and fully funding our students’ K-12 education when the new funding formula goes into effect.
What to Expect in Week 8
There's exactly one month left of work for the Legislature before they adjourn for their April break pre-Veto Session. Despite the short time left, committees are holding many bill hearings this next week, several of which we’ll testify on.
On Monday:
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In Senate Tax:
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In Senate Education, testimony on several items in the budget for the Kansas State Department of Education.
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In House Tax, opponent testimony on HB 2318, which would trigger a flat income tax rate when revenues exceed a certain amount. (We’ll also testify on the Senate’s identical version of this bill, SB 259, on Tuesday in Senate Tax).
On Tuesday in House Health, proponent testimony on HB 2236, which would codify the Mental Health Intervention Team program.
On Wednesday:
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In Senate Committee on Ways and Means, we’ll provide testimony on items in the budgets for the Department for Children and Families and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
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In House Health:
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Proponent testimony on HB 2386, which would fix an eligibility issue within the requirements for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
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Proponent testimony on HB 2397, regarding local health department funding.
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Proponent testimony on HB 2399, increasing the capitation limit on the Newborn Screening Program.
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On Friday in House Health, opponent testimony on Sub. for SB 29, regarding prohibiting public gatherings in light of disease outbreaks. While we still don’t support this bill, the bill was amended by the Senate Health Committee to not impact public health policy as severely.
These next few weeks will fly by. We encourage you to continue calling your state and federal lawmakers about the issues you care about.
There’s a lot to keep up with this session, so remember you can always visit the Legislature’s website and look up the bills you care about to see where they’re at in the process. And you can get day-to-day updates on what bills KAC is monitoring during the 2025 Session here.
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