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02 May

Posted at 13:26h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, Veto Session The 2022 Kansas Legislature returned on Monday, April 25 to begin its Veto Session. Legislators continued work on unfinished legislation and took action to attempt to override vetoes of various bills by Governor Laura Kelly. The legislature finished its work late on Thursday, with the Senate finally adjourning around 2:20 am early Friday morning. The Legislature passed a resolution to adjourn until May 23, 2022, at which time it will return and take any action necessary to pass a new Congressional redistricting map following a review by...

22 Apr

Posted at 20:29h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, First Adjournment Update The 2022 Kansas legislature will return on Monday, April 25 to begin the Veto Session where it will continue work on unfinished legislation and reconsider bills vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. Please find, below, an update on bills reviewed by the Governor during the interim, and legislation yet to be completed this year.   State Budget Governor Kelly has signed House Sub for Senate Bill 267, the budget for state agencies for fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024. The bill leaves an ending balance projection of $1.4 billion...

13 Apr

Posted at 16:10h in Advocacy, Industry News, Regulatory
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Renew Kansas Biofuels Association’s statewide advocacy efforts in-part resulted in assisting President Joe Biden’s announcement of an emergency waiver lifting the restriction on 2022 summer sales of E15 fuel on April 12. The announcement followed letters coordinated by Renew Kansas and submitted to the Biden Administration by both Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt requesting expanded availability of E15. E15 is a lower cost, high-octane fuel offering environmental benefits through lower emission and a reduction on foreign oil dependence. “We extend our sincerest gratitude to Governor Kelly for...

04 Apr

Posted at 21:06h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, Week 12 Last week was the final week of regular session for the 2022 Kansas legislature. Both chambers deliberated for hours, with final action on Friday concluding about 1:30 am. Legislators will take off most of the month of April before returning on Monday, April 25 for a, likely brief, veto session to consider bills vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. In addition, multiple bills of significant interest that failed to be passed Friday evening could still be addressed during the veto session.   State Budget Passed The House and Senate agreed...

04 Apr

Posted at 17:16h in Advocacy, Industry News, Regulatory
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Following a meeting with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt during Renew Kansas Biofuels Association's advocacy day on March 17, Schmidt volunteered to coordinate an attorneys general letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan requesting expanded use of E15 to ease fuel prices for consumers. View the official release from Schmidt's office below. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller today asked the EPA to allow the sale of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol – known as E15 – this summer to ease prices at the pump. “Doing so will give...

28 Mar

Posted at 18:09h in Industry News
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KDOT’s strategy for pursuing competitive grants under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is focused on maximizing Kansas’ likelihood of success. About 40% of BIL funding will be through competitive grants. U.S. DOT has indicated grant applications which benefit multiple communities/states and those that connect and build toward long-term priorities across the state will be the most competitive. With this in mind, KDOT’s strategy for pursuing and supporting federal BIL grants for highway modernization and expansion projects is focused projects in the development/construction pipeline. KDOT will support highway modernization and expansion projects in the...

25 Mar

Posted at 16:05h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, Week 11 This week was Drop Dead week for the Kansas legislature, where any non-exempt bill not passed both chambers may be dead unless it is referred to a conference committee which meets next week to work out differences in bills. Both the House and Senate debated and passed numerous bills this week, with the Senate, on Wednesday, working until close to 2:00 am. The House passed its budget bill and overwhelmingly approved Sub HB 2737 which will draw new House district lines for the next 10 years.   Legislators...

21 Mar

Posted at 14:27h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, Week 10 The Kansas legislature’s final day for non-exempt committees to meet passed without much fanfare on Friday, March 18. As a rain and snow mixture fell on Topeka Friday, a few lawmakers navigated the statehouse hallways, while the majority of legislators returned home to gear up for a week of late-night floor debate on big-ticket issues as time winds down on the 2022 session.   This week the Senate passed two high-priority pieces of legislation to the House: the 2023 state agency budget and redistricting maps. The House meanwhile...

12 Mar

Posted at 15:24h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, Week 9 A snow front on Thursday caused abbreviated work in the Kansas Legislature this week. One major action item was the release of newly proposed state Senate district maps which would pair multiple incumbent Senators against each other in the coming 2024 elections. The Democrats’ proposed Eisenhower Senate map plan creates only one incumbent v. incumbent battle in the 2024 elections, while the Republicans’ Liberty 2 map creates two, and the Kansas League of Women Voters’ BluestemSenate creates three such scraps.   Also, this week, on a vote of...

06 Mar

Posted at 18:52h in Advocacy
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2022 Legislative Session, Week 8 The legislature returned to work this week to begin further consideration of bills. On Thursday afternoon, while debating a bill that would provide income tax credits to graduates of aviation-related programs and their employers, the Senate amended the bill multiple times to add other income and property tax bills and programs with a total cost of over $100 million to the state. The bill now includes such items as an income tax credit for schoolteachers, a freeze on property taxes for seniors and veterans, property tax...

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