Category: Kansas Legislature

Kansas House passes bill allowing moral, medical, religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines

Businesses who question beliefs or retaliate could face fines up to $50K through complaints to labor department

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Rep. John Eplee, a Republican primary care physician from Atchison, shot down fears of the COVID-19 vaccine in a speech Monday on the House floor.

Several other Republicans raised concerns about the safety and efficiency of the vaccine during debate over a bill expanding the ways workers can opt out of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and punishing businesses who question their beliefs. The House passed the bill by a 78-40 vote, setting up negotiations with the Senate to iron out differences in competing bills.

Anti-vaxxers packed the gallery overlooking the House chamber for this historic special session debate, and were repeatedly admonished for jeering, applauding or coughing on the lawmakers below.

“There is no doubt in my mind as a practicing, living, breathing, primary care physician that this vaccine is incredibly safe and very prudent to give to our patients,” Eplee said.

Eplee said he personally has ordered the vaccine for at least several hundred patients and has not seen any serious side effects. He dismissed frequently debunked misinformation based on unverified reports collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Environment.

His little hospital is now filling up again with COVID-19 patients again, Eplee said, and every single one of them is unvaccinated.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you think we’re going to be done with the virus through this bill or through other things, you’re fooling yourself,” Eplee said. “This virus doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican, and this virus isn’t done with us. It’s going to continue to percolate along. It’s going to find vulnerable, unvaccinated and vaccine-vulnerable people.”

Eplee said he wasn’t thrilled with the House bill but, in deference to some of those in the gallery, he explained that he would support the legislation — so long as it doesn’t change after negotiations with the Senate — because he believes in his constituents.

GOP leaders in advance of the special session prepared last-minute updates to proposed exemptions previously outlined during meetings of a special overreach committee. The House passed a bill that would allow employees to claim an exemption on moral grounds, in addition to medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs.

The House version of the bill doesn’t provide unemployment benefits for individuals who don’t want to get vaccinated against the deadly disease, a key difference from the Senate version.

In the House bill, businesses are not allowed to question employees about the exemptions. Employees can file a grievance with the Kansas Department of Labor if they are denied an exemption or allege retaliation. The agency is required to investigate those complaints and within 25 days turn over findings to the attorney general, who can then file civil action in court. Small businesses face a fine up to $10,000 for each violation. For businesses with more than 100 employees, the fine can be as high as $50,000. The fines will go to the state, not the employees filing grievances.

House Speaker Ron Ryckman advised House Republicans in a meeting before the session opened to avoid the temptation to add provisions to the bill that “sound good” — a reference to anti-vaxxers who are unhappy the legislation isn’t more extreme — and embrace court-tested language already in the bill.

“This is about federal mandates, not about if a vaccine works or doesn’t work,” Ryckman told reporters Sunday night. “This is about the federal government inserting themselves between someone’s health and their job.”

The House strategy is to secure the exemptions so a broader bill providing for unemployment benefits is unnecessary. The labor department already plans to approve benefits for individuals who have been fired from their job because of a vaccine mandate, depending on circumstances of each case. Employees who quit before they are fired won’t receive benefits — 10 such individuals have already been denied benefits.

In the pre-session meeting, several representatives raised concerns about extending exemptions on the basis of “non-theistic moral and ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong.” Others raised concerns about the prohibition on inquiring about the validity of religious beliefs.

“A lot of people are going to find Jesus, and I think that’s fantastic,” said Rep. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican who defended the bill.

The Kansas Chamber issued a statement Monday morning opposing the bill, placing them at rare odds with Republican lawmakers. During floor debate, Democrats seized the opportunity to chastise Republicans for proposing legislation that would hurt businesses.

“Make no mistake: We do not have the support of business of Kansas,” said Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka.

Rep. Rui Xu, D-Westwood, pointed out 14 references to the word “shall” in the three-page bill.

“If this is not a mandate, what is it?” Xu said. “And if this is not an expansion of government, what is it?”

The House bill only applies to COVID-19 vaccines required by employers. It also contains a sunset provision, in which the bill expires after two years. Owens said the hope is the Legislature at that time will remove the “COVID-19” references and finalize a law that applies the exemptions to all types of vaccines.

The special session is a response to a series of federal mandates. A federal court already has suspended a requirement that employees of large businesses to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and wear a mask at work. Another mandate applies to employees of Medicaid and Medicare providers, including long-term care facilities. The federal government also requires its own employees to be vaccinated, a measure that extends to federal contractors.

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said lawmakers were selling constituents a bill of goods that isn’t true by telling them the law would save their jobs. Federal orders are the law of the land, he said, and any challenges to them will be decided in court.

“What we do here won’t change that,” Carmichael said.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican who is running for governor in next year’s election, told House Republicans in a meeting Sunday night that the best recourse for Kansas employees are the lawsuits he has joined to challenge the federal mandates.

“The one thing I can say with confidence is that if we succeed in these three lawsuits, that is the best and most certain way to ensure that those three federal mandates … do not have legal effect in Kansas and therefore avoids all the types of questions,” Schmidt said.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/11/22/kansas-house-passes-bill-allowing-moral-medical-religious-exemptions-to-covid-19-vaccines/.

Kansas’ proposed vaccination freedom reform attracts heavy dose of skepticism

Special session offering ‘squishy’ exemption and chum for trial lawyers

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Retired registered nurse Debbie Detmer insisted the Kansas Legislature fight the federal government’s effort to trample religious, medical and personal freedoms by compelling workers to be vaccinated during the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

The Shawnee grandmother said lawmakers convening Monday for the special legislative session devoted to COVID-19 must reinforce ideals of bodily autonomy by punching back at overreach by President Joe Biden.

“Stop all COVID testing, masking and vaccination mandates — period,” Detmer said. “These federal acts are unconstitutional.”

Registered nurse Kelly Sommers said effective protection of public health necessitated people be immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases. Medical exemptions to a vaccine mandate should be allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, but not philosophical or religious exceptions.

“It is the role and oath of a nurse to dedicate and devote ourselves to the welfare of whom we serve,” said Sommers, of the Kansas State Nurses Association. “We are there to protect every single person in our community.”

Two registered nurses. Two distinctly different views of the pandemic. Their conflicting assessments illustrate the challenge awaiting members of the House and Senate. They’re expected to juggle health, economic, political, financial and constitutional issues keenly felt by the state’s polarized electorate amid the pandemic.

On the to-do list will be legislation making it easier for a person to claim a religious exemption to vaccination mandates. Lawmakers also are expected to consider granting unemployment benefits to anyone fired for refusing to be vaccinated or to undergo regular testing.

It’s not clear GOP leaders in the House and Senate have the votes to pass both bills or if they control two-thirds majorities in event of a governor’s veto.

Expect attempts to introduce supplemental legislation during the special session, because history has recorded the difficulty of restraining all 125 representatives and 40 senators thrown together in the Capitol cauldron. The 2022 governor’s race, likely pitting Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly against Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, could add more fuel to the fire.

Extraordinary blowback

Republican leaders in the Legislature said they responded to calls for a special session by appointing the Special Committee on Government Overreach and the Impact of COVID-19 Mandates.

The committee began by conducting two days of public testimony with about 100 people denouncing Biden and other public officials who embraced pandemic limitations adopted since March 2020.

At times, it took on the appearance of political theater as witnesses compared the murder of millions of Jewish people in World War II to decisions by Kansas officials to require wearing of a paper mask during the pandemic.
Another witness compared workplace vaccination requirements to an order to eat a roll of toilet paper to preserve a job.

The GOP-led committee hosted another day of testimony to solicit input on the proposed legislation tied to a religious exemption and unemployment benefits. It produced a flurry of blowback from the Kansas Chamber and other business organizations that declared the legislation went too far. At the same time, the anti-vaccination organization Kansans for Health Freedom argued the legislation didn’t go far enough.

Debbie Mize, co-founder of Kansans for Health Freedom, said the special committee prepared for the special session by drafting a “squishy” bill in response to people forced from their jobs over refusal to accept injections of COVID-19 vaccine.

“Do you really believe this will offer protection for Kansan workers? Kansans want language that will protect their right to keep medical circumstances private and the right to refuse any medical procedure,” Mize said.

Michael Poppa, executive director of the Mainstream Coalition, said the proposed reforms would open a floodgate of spurious claims based on religious grounds. The changes also wade into the waters of separation of church and state, he said.

The result will be circumvention of a private employer’s right to protect employees from COVID-19, he said.

Dan Murray, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the legislation was flawed because it would create opportunity for aggrieved employees to file lawsuits against business owners who deny religious exemptions from the federal vaccine mandate.

“We do have concerns this bill could put employers in the unenviable position of choosing compliance with the Biden mandate or opening themselves up to civil litigation from employees,” he said. “We fear the proposed new civil action could chum the waters even more for Kansas trial attorneys.”

Kansas Chamber lobbyist Eric Stafford said piling on a state mandate in response to a federal mandate was problematic. He said a state law providing unemployment benefits to someone who refused to get vaccinated created a slippery slope in the workplace.

He said such a policy would foster an environment in which workers could “turn in a frivolous claim for an exemption only to be entitled to unemployment insurance and a lawsuit against their employer.”

Seek ‘collective good’

Laura Klingensmith, vice president of a health care business consulting company and part of lawsuits filed in Johnson County against mask mandates, said the base bill offered by the special House and Senate committee for consideration in the special session was “worthless.”

It doesn’t put a stop to discrimination and segregation of people based on vaccination status, she said.

“Will you fight for our health freedoms?” Klingensmith said. “Or, will you choose the agenda of lobbyists, special interests and the Kansas Chamber over us?”

Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover, said criticism wouldn’t deter the Legislature from working to strengthen the right of Kansans to be granted religious and medical exemptions to unconstitutional directives issued by Biden.

“We really need to get back to focusing on the fundamental right of the individual,” Masterson said. “We’re not going to let the Biden administration force businesses to play God or doctor and determine whether a religious or medical exemption is valid or not. We’re going to trust individual Kansans.”

Kelly, the Democratic governor seeking re-election, denounced Biden’s vaccination requirement for federal workers and contractors as well as large businesses. Once presented a petition signed by more than 110 Republicans and one Democrat seeking a special session, Kelly relied on power granted governors in the Kansas Constitution to convene the Legislature in special session as of 10 a.m. Monday.

“I’m eager to identify solutions that balance the collective good and individual rights,” said Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa. “I am skeptical that the Legislature will be able to come to a compromise that does that, particularly in light of the positions taken by Republicans during the special committee on government overreach.”

Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat from Hutchinson, said the special session was a waste of taxpayer money. He said the special session was a $65,000-per-day demonstration of how “extremist lawmakers” inflame debate about COVID-19 vaccines for political gain.

“These politicians, who are openly and with hostility working to keep people angry, scared and divided, are doing more to destroy our country than any terrorist group could ever hope to achieve,” he said. “When it’s over the people who absurdly think they’re enduring the same abuse as Holocaust victims still won’t be appeased.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/11/21/kansas-proposed-vaccination-freedom-reform-attracts-heavy-dose-of-skepticism/

Sales tax plan could save Kansans $500 a year on their grocery bills, governor says

Gov. Laura Kelly said today that that her plan to “Axe the Food Tax,” ending the sales tax on food, will save the average Kansan family $500 on their annual grocery bill.

“For too long, Kansans have been paying more for groceries than people in almost every other state,” Gov. Kelly said in a press conference with weekly and small publications.

She said the state can cut food sales tax and keep Kansas’ budget intact thanks to fiscally responsible decisions they made before and during the pandemic.

When asked about the timing of the plan, Gov Kelly said, “Anybody who knows me knows that I am incredibly fiscally conservative. I don’t like to spend money I don’t have, and it really wasn’t until this time, in this budget cycle, that I am very comfortable that we have the revenues to cover the elimination of the food sales tax and will be able to sustain that going forward.

“We have been very responsible over the past three budget cycles,” she said. “As people know, we have fully funded our schools and we are on the brink of actually closing the bank of KDOT so we will no longer be robbing the highway fund to fill holes in the system. We are in good financial shape, we’re solid, this is sustainable, and this is the right time to do it.”

The details of the plan are to eliminate the state sales tax on food immediately, the governor said in answer to a question.

“We have the money available to us right now to go ahead and fully eliminate the 6.5% state sales tax on food. So it will go away as soon as the bill becomes law and the law takes effect. It could be as early as April 1, but more likely July 1st,” Gov. Kelly said.

Gov. Kelly said she is optimistic about the food sales tax passing.

“Given the revenues that we have coming in now and given most people’s interest in doing something about the food sales tax – and given that the Speaker of the House and Senate President have both voiced support – I am optimistic,” she said. “The real trick here will be to get it through the legislative session cleanly – which means this bill will be introduced as a complete elimination of the state food sales tax with nothing else married to it so we can implement it even sooner.”


The overall fiscal impact on the state of removing the state food sales tax is about $450 million a year, Gov. Kelly said.

“In terms of the impact on locals, this bill will have no impact,” she said. “The local sales tax rates are set by the local officials and there will be nothing in this bill that would impact their ability to continue to control those rates in concert with their citizens.”