Kansas Legislature accelerates as GOP leaders jam through dozens of bills in mere days

Protesters adorned with clothing reminiscent of "The Handmaid's Tale" carried cloth signs labeled "Shame" as they challenged Kansas legislators Feb. 16, 2026, at the Kansas Capitol to enact policies for benefit of Kansans rather than follow a path toward theocratic government. (Photo by Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

This past week at the Kansas Statehouse, both chambers went into overdrive. According to the journals of their official proceedings, the House passed 121 bills from Monday through Thursday, including 113 in just two days. The Senate passed 52 bills, with 50 of those on Wednesday alone.

As I wrote last week, the ostensible reason for this flurry of activity is that both chambers want to finish their business before “turnaround.” That means each chamber passes whatever legislation its lawmakers want to send across the rotunda for their esteemed peers to handle.

As I wrote in the same piece, turnaround is a lie.

Bills can be “blessed” to come up whenever House or Senate leadership desires. Exempt committees can continue to work new legislation during the weeks ahead. And if worse comes to worst, new policy can always be inserted into shell bills at the last moment.

The insane pace and heavy workload seen last week is a tactic employed GOP bigwigs. There is no crisis. There is no urgency. Like turnaround, it’s all a lie.

What leaders hope to accomplish is pushing their respective caucuses to vote for bad bills by forcing them through an endurance marathon.

Here’s what House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson won’t tell you: They can take as long as they want. Sessions have lasted deep into the June. Lawmakers could spend a day considering each bill, if they wanted.

Leaders gamble on extracting a toll from their members to advance an ideological agenda. So if you see your representative or senator around town and they complain about the onerous schedule, ask them who sets that schedule. Ask them if they chose to move 65 bills in a single day, as the House did Thursday.

Then ask them why they think leadership wants to do so.

 

The Ad Astra statue atop the Kansas Statehouse takes aim against a wall of gray clouds on May 2, 2025. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Day of rest

After the flurry of activity mentioned in my first item, everyone has decided to take a day off. The House and Senate are out this Monday.

In the past, those chambers usually took most of a week off after turnaround. But this session — as has been the case since the beginning — leaders have abused an accelerated schedule to make sure that their members don’t hear too much from constituents back home.

After all, if the people you represent tell you that they don’t think you’re doing a good job, you might have to reconsider your lockstep obedience to the the Senate president and the House speaker. That iron grip on power so fetishized by Masterson and Hawkins might slip.

Far easier to keep everyone in Topeka, sleep-deprived and stressed, and assure them that everything will work out fine in the end. Here’s a tip: It won’t.

 

Jaelynn Abegg, a trans rights activist from Wichita, rallies at a Feb. 6, 2026, event opposing SB 244 at the Statehouse. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Quickly enacted

For those tracking the implementation of that anti-trans bathroom ban, the law could well take affect this Thursday.

While new laws commonly take effect over the summer – July 1 to be precise – House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 includes language radically shortening that timeline. While driver’s license provisions don’t kick in until the summer, requirements that people use public facilities matching their birth gender take effect as the law is published in the Kansas Register.

That’s the official state newspaper, which is published online every Thursday.

This lightning-fast timeline puts an onus on state, county and municipal officials to figure out just how to enforce confusing and vaguely worded requirements. We’ll be watching here at Kansas Reflector.

 

Transgender Kansans and their allies rally May 5, 2023, at the Statehouse in Topeka in protest of the “women’s bill of rights.” (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Personal pain

Sometimes, it’s difficult not to take the state Legislature personally. That’s one of the reasons why I write about lawmakers’ anti-trans bills the way that I do.

I know transgender folks. I’ve known trans people for most of my life. So have you, most likely. Not everyone who is trans has transitioned. Some of those who have transitioned can easily “pass.” Unless they choose to share it with you, you may not even know their identity.

But if a trans person has shared even a fraction of their journey with you, if you understand the tiniest bit of what they encounter day to day, it would astonish you that lawmakers would seek to make their fellow Kansans’ lives more challenging, more difficult and more fraught with legal peril.

It’s reprehensible.

It’s not going to stop with trans people either. Last week came news that Tennessee has taken a shot at same-sex marriage rights. Likewise, the Kansas Republican Party platform adopted Jan. 31 includes a plank targeting same-sex unions. If you believe that discrimination against trans people will only stop at trans people and that the “good” and “normal” gay men and lesbian women won’t be affected, just wait and see.

They’re coming for the rest of us. I don’t think they’ll be successful, but the threat is real.

 

The House Republican caucus met behind closed doors on Thursday morning. (Photo by Clay Wirestone/Kansas Reflector)

In hiding

As I reported last year, and as I confirmed at the beginning of this session, the House Republican caucus continues to meet behind closed doors.

This wasn’t always the case. Reporters for decades attended caucus meetings at the beginning of each day to hear chatter among Republican House members. They would learn about the agenda for the upcoming day.

These days, Hawkins and his merry band of GOP elected decide their actions and votes without public oversight. They keep you from knowing their plans. They have decided to exert maximum effort to prevent aggressive coverage of the laws they pass in your name.

You will hear more from us on this issue before the end of the session.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.