Melanie Meier's Adventures in the Statehouse
Kansas House of Representatives
40th District
Volume 2011, Issue 6: February 14-20, 2011
In This Issue
Last Week before Turnaround
Workmen's Compensation
Veterans, Military & Homeland Security Committee
Corrections & Juvenile Justice Committee
Judiciary Committee
Around Home
Keep in Touch
Last Week before Turnaround
Last week was extremely busy and this coming week will be no different. Friday the 25th of February is "turnaround" when the House sends its approved Bills to the Senate and the Senate sends its approved Bills to the House. All committee work must be wrapped up by Tuesday at noon and the rest of the week will be spent on the Floor in debate and final action voting.
Workmen's Compensation
This week, we debated HB 2134 on the House Floor. For decades, workers and employers have not been able to reach an agreement on workmen's compensation that has been acceptable to both parties. Throughout this stalemate, the cost of living has skyrocketed while work compensation benefits remained stagnant, dropping Kansas to 47th in workmen's compensation benefits for the United States. HB2134 started out as an historic compromise written jointly by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. Both agreed to the "prevailing injury" standard that when the injury was caused by the job, that recipients are now entitled to life long benefits so they will not have to prove they were injured on the job every year, the percentage of benefits will be determined by the percentage of work the injured worker can still do, and injured workers must look for new employment. Unfortunately, the House Committee that worked the Bill made several amendments and now the workers are very uncomfortable with it. They say that it is no longer their compromise and one of the amendments may even encourage a business to hire undocumented workers because the proposal would allow the denial of benefits to them no matter how long the person worked before being injured.
Veterans, Military & Homeland Security Committee
The Committee held a hearing on HB2210 this week. This bill proposes establishment of a program "to provide mental health services for combat-related conditions including, but not limited to, combat fatigue, post-traumatic stress and depression, and readjustment counseling and services to veterans of any branch of the armed forces of the United States and their spouses and dependents." The Kansas Commission on Veteran Affairs, the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, Inc., the National Guard Association of Kansas, the Kansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the American Legion all sent representatives to testify in support of the concept.
The Governor's Military Council and the Legislature have both recognized that although all returning veterans have six months of health care coverage as if they are still on active duty, that signs of Post Traumatic Stress do not usually manifest until a service member has been home about that same time. In addition, the veterans that return to rural Kansas often do not have access to VA services or Active Duty Bases without taking time off work to spend the day traveling.
Although everyone is in agreement of the concept, there will be many details to work out between all the service providers and the KCVA. There is currently a pilot program being run by the KU Medical Center and VA to provide services to the rural areas through tele-medicine and determine the feasibility and effectiveness of such a program. The committee has decided to work the bill next year once the results of the pilot program are available and all the health providers and the KCVA can work on the details of an all encompassing Mental Health Services Program.
Corrections & Juvenile Justice
The Committee held many hearings this week. HB2197 is a proposal to give Public Defenders the option to refuse to accept court appointed cases if their active case load is too large for them to provide an adequate defense. The chief judge of the district would then appoint attorneys from the panel for indigents' defense services to take the cases. Another hearing was on HB2044, which would raise the penalties for hit and run cases that result in injury or death. There have been instances in Kansas when drivers have been involved in accidents, but they left the scene without rendering aid or calling for help for victims who had suffered serious injury and died. The police must track the driver down, often days later, and the only consequence is probation or a fine for leaving the scene of an accident. District Attorneys and families of victims are seeking to raise the penalties to presumptive imprisonment in an attempt to get drivers to stop and do the right thing.
Judiciary
The Committee held a hearing on HB2101 this week. This Bill proposes selecting Supreme Court Appeals judges in the same manner that Federal Supreme Court judges are selected. The Chairman of the Committee introduced this proposal with the announcement that the bill already has a constitutional problem that must be amended before it goes anywhere because by the Kansas Constitution, the legislature can not set terms past 4 years. If the proposal becomes law, the judges on the Kansas Supreme Court of Appeals would be selected by the Governor and the Senate would have to confirm them within 30 days for a life long appointment. The current Nominating Commission would be abolished. We heard 21 proponents and opponents to the Bill. Most of the proponents testified that while they did not support election of judges, they felt that leaving the nominations up to lawyers is "arrogant and elitist." They testified that by having the Senate, who is elected by the people of Kansas, confirm the nominees, that the will of the people of Kansas would be served. Although when questioned, the proponents stated that all the Appeals Courts judges that have been selected since 1977 have been very good judges and that they could not name a decision that they felt was biased in anyway.
The current nominating commission system was established in 1977 and is made up of 4 lawyers with a chair that is elected by all lawyers in the State plus 4 laymen appointed by the Governor, one from each Congressional District. When a position comes open on the
Appeals Court
Every licensed lawyer in the State is notified and can submit an application. The Selection Commission reviews each application and writing samples, investigates each applicant's background, interviews the applicant and interviews others who have worked with them. The Selection Commission forwards the top 3 applicants to the Governor who chooses one and makes the appointment. All the judges stand for retention in the State general elections.
The opponents to HB2101 testified that by going to the Federal system of selecting judges the system will become political. They said that the Governor would still need help in selecting a person to nominate because he would not have the time to do the extensive background checks and interviews; then the selected nominee would have to stand to the scrutiny of the Senate, like the Federal system which would "bring the circus to town" by attempting to impose DC politics on our Kansas court system. They testified that the everyday citizen of Kansas would lose their input because they would no longer be able to vote whether to retain the judges. The opponents also pointed out that a special session of the Senate would have to be called if a nominee was selected when they were out of session and that would cost more money.
Around Home
This week I had many visitors in Topeka. Tuesday the 15th, the President of the NE Kansas Chapter of the American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., along with 5 other Gold Star family members testified with me before the Transportation Committee in Support of the issuance of a Kansas Gold Star Family license plate. That evening Lois Reed and other members of the Atchison Achievement Services for the developmental disabled visited. On Wednesday, Wes Williams, a Gifted and Talented Student from Tonganoxie High School, was my Legislative Shadow and two German exchange students that are living in Leavenworth visited me, the Governor and Senator Kultala at the Capitol. That evening Bill Bohne visited with the Kansas Association of School Boards as the representative of the Easton School Board. The annual American Legion/VFW Convention was also this week and I was able to visit with Ralph Beckwith, AC Byrd, George Grimm and others to discuss veterans issues. On Thursday, the Executive Director of the Guidance Center, Keith Rickard and board members, including Kathy Meyer from Leavenworth visited with me about Mental Health issues facing Kansas.
Keep in Touch
It is a special honor to serve as your State Representative. I value and need your input on the various issues facing state government. Please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions. To write to me, my office address is Kansas State Capitol, Topeka, KS 66612. You can also reach me at (785) 296-7668 or call the legislative hotline at 1-800-432-3924 to leave a message for me. Additionally, you can e-mail me at melanie.meier@house.ks.gov. Don't forget that you can also follow the legislative session online at http://www.kslegislature.org/, including live broadcasts of the House and Senate while on the floor.
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