Brief ⁽¹⁾

HB 2497 amends various statutes that relate to joint committees and standing committees of the Kansas Legislature, deletes obsolete provisions from some of the statutes included in the bill, and repeals some statutes that are either reconstituted in the bill or simply repealed.

Section 1 amends the statute that creates the Joint Committee on Economic Development to delete the requirement that members be the chair or a person designated by the chair of specified committees of the House and Senate and to provide that three members be appointed by the President of the Senate and two by the Minority Leader of the Senate and five members be appointed by the Speaker of the House and three by the Minority Leader of the House. A technical amendment deletes obsolete language.

Section 2 concerns the Joint Committee on Arts and Cultural Resources and amends the statute that establishes the Joint Committee to delete the requirement that at least four of the members of the Joint Committee be members of specified House and Senate standing committees.

Section 3 amends the statute that creates the Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments and Benefits to change the composition of the Committee, on and after July 1, 2001, from five Senate members and eight House members to six members of the Senate and seven members of the House. The amendments also delete the requirement that one Senate member be the chair of the Ways and Means Committee or the chair's designee and one member be the chair or designee of the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations. The terms of the members of the Joint Committee appointed prior to the effective date of the bill would all terminate on July 1, 2001, under the provisions of HB 2497. The amendments provide for the chair to be a member of the House and the vice chair a member of the Senate until the first day of the 2002 Session and for the rotation of the positions thereafter.

New Section 4 creates a new Joint Committee on Health Care Oversight which will replace the existing Health Care Reform Legislative Oversight Committee on the effective date of HB 2497. The new statute is virtually identical to that creating the existing Health Care Reform Legislative Oversight Committee with four exceptions. The size of the committee is increased from 12 to 14 members. Rather than an equal number of appointments by the majority and minority leadership in each house, the new committee will be composed of four members from each house appointed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House respectively and three members from each house appointed by the Minority Leader of each house. The chair and vice chair are to be appointed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, and the positions are to rotate between the houses as set out in the bill. The charge to the new committee is identical to that of the existing committee with the addition of responsibility for oversight of the implementation and operation of the child health insurance program (HealthWave). The authority to appoint subcommittees given to the existing committee but not utilized in recent years is not included in the new legislation.

New Section 5 creates a new SRS Oversight Committee that replaces the existing SRS Transition Oversight Committee. The new statute continues the Committee as a 12-member committee, with three members from each house appointed by the Speaker and President of the Senate respectively, with two of the three appointees (one a majority member and one a minority member) being from the House Committee on Health and Human Services and the Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Three members are to be appointed by the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee from among the members of the Committee and three appointed by the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations with one appointee by each chair a member of the minority party as in existing law. The charge to the new committee is virtually identical to the charge under the existing law, with the exception of deletion of language that required the committee to study the closure of Topeka State Hospital and Winfield State Hospital and Training Center.

Section 6 amends the statute enacted in 2000 that creates a Task Force on Long-Term Care Services. The amendments provide that of the seven members appointed by the Legislative Coordinating Council, no more than two shall reside in any one congressional district and deletion of the requirement that members appointed by the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, and the two Minority Leaders be members of specified standing committees of the Legislature.

Sections 7 and 8 simply change current references in the statutes amended from the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to the Committee on Natural Resources.

Sections 9 and 10 amend statutes that concern the development of lake resorts to delete references to studies that have been completed, thereby eliminating outdated references to the House Committee on Tourism, Senate Committee on Transportation and Tourism, and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Section 11 deletes an outdated reference to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Section 12 deletes statutory language relating to reports to be made by the Secretary of Health and Environment to the 1999 and 2000 Legislatures on the implementation of legislation on swine facilities that includes outdated references to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Section 13 changes an outdated reference to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Section 14 amends a statute that concerns Internet access provided by rural telephone companies by deleting language concerning a report to be made by the Corporation Commission to specified legislative committees, which language contains outdated references to Senate committees.

Sections 15 and 16 delete outdated references to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Tourism and, where appropriate, substitute a reference to the Senate Committee on Commerce.

Section 17 deletes outdated language in a statute that concerns tax credits for required improvements to swine facilities that requires reports that have been made and presented to the Legislature and a reference to a Senate committee that has been renamed.

Sections 18 through 35 amend various statutes in which there is currently a reference to the House Economic Development Committee to change the reference to the House New Economy Committee.

HB 2497 repeals KSA 38-874e, an obsolete statute that concerns a report that was to be made by the Secretaries of Wildlife and Parks and Commerce and Housing to specified legislative committees on negotiations for the construction of a resort at a Kansas state park; KSA 46-2507 which creates the Health Care Reform Legislative Oversight Committee; KSA 46-2701 which creates the SRS Transition Oversight Committee; KSA 46-3001 which creates the Joint Committee on Children's Issues; KSA 74-2623 which directs the Kansas Water Office to conduct a study and submit a report to designated House and Senate committees by January 8, 2001; and KSA 74-9005, a statute that directs a state tourism study which was to be completed by the 1998 Session.

Background

HB 2497, as amended by Senate Committee, incorporates the provisions of SB 336 into the provisions of HB 2497 as the latter passed the House of Representatives.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi