What we’re watching: April state legislative update

Health Forward is supporting and building inclusive, powerful, and healthy communities by prioritizing people who experience the greatest injustices in health outcomes. We are working to remove those injustices through our leadership, advocacy, and resources. 

With the Kansas session concluding April 11 and Missouri in the home stretch with a little more than four weeks to go, we’re looking at a narrowing set of possibilities for what will make it to governors’ desks. On the Missouri side, there’ll be a lot of eyes on the Senate as that’s where bills will get debated. In Kansas there’s some legislation we’ll be looking at what the governor does, even after veto overrides. No matter what, we remain active in our testimony and policy focus to track and impact legislation the advances or hinders our overall goals.

Take a look at our policy agendas for Kansas and Missouri, to get a sense of how the action in Kansas and Missouri impacts the outcomes we seek to advance through Health Forward’s purpose plan.

Kansas

Topline takeaways:

• Even though advocates, partners, and Health Forward opposed SB 4 – the elimination of the three-day grace period for returning advance mail-in ballots – it was passed by both chambers, sent to the governor who vetoed it, and was overridden by the legislature before they took their April break. Last election, this law would have disenfranchised thousands of votes and will do so in future elections. Additionally, SB 5, which bans federal funding for local elections, was also vetoed and overridden.
• The governor’s veto of HB 2240– which requires legislative approval for an executive agency to make policy for safety net programs – was overridden and this is now law. This is an overreach of legislative powers and will also slow down responsive policymaking, like with Community Health Workers (CHWs), all to the detriment of healthy, thriving Kansas people and communities.
• The governor’s veto of SB 29, a bill which would remove the authority of health officials to curb gatherings of people during an infectious disease outbreak, didn’t hold up and the legislature overrode it to make this law, making Kansas less safe during an infectious disease outbreak.
• Just before the session ended, the elimination of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit in HB 2119 was inserted into HB 2289 and was sent to the governor for signature or veto.

People policy goal: People can easily access safe, quality, and affordable whole—person care.

Power policy goal: Participation in our democracy and policymaking process improves health outcomes.

Place Policy Goal: Our communities are healthy place where people fully participate in the digital economy and build wealth through safe, quality, and affordable housing and homeownership. 

Platform policy goal: Community health is influenced by systems, policies, and stories that promote racial equity and economic inclusion.

A comprehensive view of what we’re tracking can be found at our full Kansas Bill Tracker. 

Missouri

Topline takeaways:

• Anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policy continues to see movement. SB 272 was heard towards the end of the month and passed out of committee last week. This legislation stifles economic boycott as a tool for expressing free speech and allows business to sue one another if they are engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. It is an unwieldy bill as it would create incentives for businesses to sue one another for commonly held business practices.  

• We’re also watching SB 22 which is set to be taken up by the House at any time for likely passage and then going to the Governor’s desk. This allows summary statements for ballot initiatives coming from the legislature to be extremely difficult to correct, even if they are demonstrably false. HB 575 adds difficult residency requirements for people gathering signatures for citizen-led initiatives; it has passed the House and has been read into the Senate. 

• HB 567 undermines the will of Missouri voters to provide an increase to the minimum wage and paid sick leave for all employees. It passed the House with ease and was heard on the Senate side. It was recently run on the Senate floor and was filibustered before being laid over. It will likely come back up before session’s end.

• In showing that sometimes you take the good with the bad, HB 594 & 508, which makes for significant income tax reductions in capital gains, also includes bills that we’ve supported – including the property tax circuit breaker and exempting diapers and feminine hygiene products from sales tax. We are extremely concerned about the cost of the capital gains part of the bill, however we do support the circuit breaker and sales tax exemptions aspects.  

People policy goal: People can easily access safe, quality, and affordable whole—person care.Power policy goal: Participation in our democracy and policymaking process improves health outcomes.

Power Policy Goal: Participation in our democracy and policymaking process improves health outcomes. 

Place Policy Goal: Our communities are healthy place where people fully participate in the digital economy and build wealth through safe, quality, and affordable housing and homeownership. 

Platform policy goal: Community health is influenced by systems, policies, and stories that promote racial equity and economic inclusion.

These bills highlighted are ones we are keeping a focus on, but here is a full list of the bills we’re tracking in Missouri.