It was an action packed week on the floor of the House and in conference committee meetings with the body considering over 90 bills on the House floor in only 2 days. To give you an idea of the pace this entails, we usually average around 10-15 bills in a week. Needless to say it was an action packed week, and after 3 solid days on the floor we left Thursday and Friday open for conference committees to meet and will back to long days for the rest of next week as we work to accomplish everything prior to first adjournment on April 4.

As usual, the bulk of our time this week was spent with budget concerns. On Monday, the House spent the entire day and passed its version of the 2010 “mega bill” which appropriates spending for FY 2010. Currently, the House and Senate are involved in conference committee negotiations to arrive at a workable bill to send to the governor. At this point, the House and Senate are working through the details of their separate versions of the bill. For the most part, the bills are roughly similar and I don’t anticipate any major concerns with getting a product out fairly quickly.

The House version is a compromise for many, holding cuts to K-12 spending at a rate of only .6%. Even such a modest cut is difficult to make, but with this portion of the budget representing nearly 50% of our total spending, it would be nearly impossible for us to balance the budget without making severe cuts to our most vulnerable citizens—I simply could not do this in good conscience.

On this note, a quick breakdown of the cuts to each department as introduced. Action on the floor added a marginal amount back on SRS spending, but this will give you an idea of the lengths we went to in order to protect education spending in our proposed House budget. The reduction in state general fund spending:

General Government spending- 9.9%
Poor and Disabled spending (SRS)- 4.2%
Public Safety spending (prisons, etc.)- 9.4%
Agriculture and Natural Resources, includes Department of Commerce- 22.7%
Higher Education- 3.5%
K-12 Education Spending- 0.6%

The decrease in spending still leaves funding levels for K-12 above 2008 spending levels, and in many cases even with or slightly above 2009 levels.

As I mentioned, our committees have finished work for 2009. I’m proud of the work that took place on the various committees I sit on and the work that was done. Among the highlights are… (add committee wrap-up/highlights for the year)

Next week we will hear from our conference committee concerning energy and the Holcomb power plants. We’ll be considering a very important bill (HB 2365) that has the potential to attract many jobs to Kansas from around the world, and will be sorting through the bills still yet to be heard. As always, your opinion on these is an important part of my decision making process. In many instances I have a good indication of what will impact our district most favorably, but any input from home means a great deal to me and is always very helpful.