Committee backs $200 cap on water-operator exam fees and creates advisory committee to address low pass rates

The Committee on Water approved amendments and reported a bill favorably that sets a limit on water-operator exam fees and adds a mandatory advisory committee to advise state regulators and report annually to the Legislature.

Representative Vaughn introduced an amendment to cap the examination fee at $200 to provide room for future inflation while limiting costs for individual examinees. Vaughn said the cap would allow use of a nationally certified exam or higher-quality in-person testing with proctoring where necessary.

Representative Vaughn: “This amendment is very similar to what I brought up in the last meeting. ... $200 was a reasonable amount, in terms of the current exam fees, which we heard, can go up to $104 I wanted to leave a little bit of room so that if those fees increase with inflation, into the future, that there's a little bit of flexibility there.”

Representative Pickert offered a second amendment to create a mandatory advisory committee tasked with recommending training, examinations, continuing education and reciprocity policies and to add two members nominated by municipal associations. The amendment also requires the Secretary to provide an annual legislative report on the number of operator examinations administered during the previous two calendar years and pass rates by operator classification.

Kyle (staff): “The amendment would bring in a new mandatory section... [and] add reporting requirement... On or before February 1 of each year, the Secretary shall provide a written report to the legislature that includes the number of operator examinations administered during the previous 2 calendar years and the pass rates of such examinations, including the pass rates of each separate classification of operator.”

Pickert cited audit figures showing 2,573 exams administered from 2022 to 2024 with 1,260 failures; she summarized the pass rate as roughly 49 percent and said the low pass rate motivated the committee changes.

Representative Pickert: “There were 1,260 people, between 2022 and 2024... that failed out of the 2,573 that took the exam, which is 49 percent passed the exam.”

Members discussed access issues for rural applicants, including travel and lodging costs, and the potential for community colleges or conservation-district offices to host proctored testing. Representative Blacks said driving from western Kansas can require a day off and at times an overnight stay, which makes testing costs beyond fees significant.

Representative Hellwig expressed concern about the latitude the change would give the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in selecting tests and said she planned to vote against the bill as it stood.

The committee also approved a technical amendment to change statutory language from removing the "ability" of the Secretary to accept correspondence courses to removing the statutory "requirement" to accept such courses, clarifying that the change repeals the legal obligation but does not categorically forbid alternative delivery methods.

Following floor-style voice votes, the committee approved the fee-cap amendment, the advisory-committee/reporting amendment, the technical amendment to the bill language, and then voted to report the bill favorably as amended. Several members recorded nay votes on amendments or the final motion, and recorded roll-call counts were not provided in the transcript.

Next steps: The amended bill will go to the House floor. The advisory committee’s annual report and the new reporting data are intended to provide the Legislature with regular pass-rate tracking and a venue for stakeholders to work on training, testing and reciprocity issues.