Kansas Senate leader flexes muscle after Democrats complain about rise of ‘zombie’ bills

Senate President Ty Masterson, shown here on Jan. 13, 2026, outside of the Statehouse, dismisssed Democratic arguments against this. year's late introduction of bills that typically would have been advanced by Feb. 19. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Senate Democrats challenged the rise of “zombie” bills Wednesday, verbally flaying Republicans for breaking protocol that puts bills to rest if they haven’t already advanced by this point in the session.

The result: Senate President Ty Masterson flexed his muscle as head of the chamber’s GOP supermajority.

Turnaround day, which occurred this year on Feb. 19, traditionally means bills that haven’t been heard in committee are dead for the year. The only ones typically receiving a new hearing after turnaround are bills that go before an exempt committee, such as the budget committee. 

Not this year. 

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Democrat from Lenexa who complained about “zombie” bills arising from apparent death, asked for a determination by the rules committee Tuesday when Masterson advanced Senate Bill 419, which he called the Kirk bill, referring to slain right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk.

The bill applies to post-secondary schools and ensures students and student associations can freely express their “political and ideological beliefs, values and missions.” It also sets up a civil cause of action and penalties for violating the act. 

“This bill was blessed after turnaround, eight days after turnaround, in fact,” Sykes said. “This is a clear violation of our rules, specifically Joint Rule 4, which states that no bill shall be considered in the House of origin after the hour of adjournment on Feb. 19 unless touched by a blessed committee.”

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, shown here at a Jan. 15, 2026, news conference, called bills introduced outside of standard protocol “zombie” legislation that arose after it should have been dead. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

The Ways and Means Committee didn’t touch the bill until Feb. 27, she said. 

The Senate rules committee immediately convened, determined the bill was viable and said the objection wasn’t germane. Sykes said on the floor later that she was told the Senate rules don’t “explicitly say that you can’t bless legislation after the turnaround deadline.”

“I’m sure we can all agree that was our intention when we agreed to these rules 13 months ago,” Sykes said Wednesday, when more “zombie” bills were introduced. “We are setting a dangerous precedent in this chamber by allowing for those bills to continue to be worked despite having died.”

Sykes said the late introduction happened with one bill last year and six bills this year. 

“At some point, this body will no longer be governed by rules, but by the whim of the majority colleagues,” she said Wednesday. “By not standing up against this complete disregard for the rules that govern us, you have ceded your power to the office of the Senate president.”

Masterson accepted that power, standing Wednesday to respond to Sykes. 

“By the way, for the record, this body does operate under the will of the majority, so does the House and any body of consensus,” he said. “There’s nothing scary or unusual about this process. It may not surprise everybody, but the senator from Johnson is incorrect that this is not any kind of breach of the rules or breaking precedent. The rule clearly states that once a bill has touched an exempt committee, it is viable for debate, and this bill has touched an exempt committee, and we’re going to debate it.”

Sen. Marci Francisco, a Lawrence Democrat who has been in the Legislature since 2005, said this isn’t the way the process has worked. 

“There was always a rush to try to get bills blessed before turnaround with the understanding that they would be removed from the list of bills that could be worked if they didn’t receive such a blessing,” she said. “So this is a different process than what I experienced during most of my years serving in this body.”

In a statement after Tuesday’s hearing, Sykes said the rules committee sided with “incredibly weak legal arguments that stretch the imagination.”

“The idea that we can break the rules simply because it is not ‘explicitly’ forbidden is laughable,” she said, giving an example of an action she could take by walking around the Senate floor while votes were being taken because it wasn’t “explicitly forbidden” in the rules. 

“Rules matter, but it’s clear that this chamber is no longer run by rules,” she said. “It’s run by the whim of the majority.”