Appropriations panel amends HB 2007: IDD slots trimmed, telehealth pilot advanced with RFP, child-advocacy grants leveled

The Kansas House Committee on Appropriations on Thursday amended House Bill 2,007, the chamber's main budget bill, approving a package of changes that trimmed some proposed spending increases and advanced a telehealth pilot while directing that it be competitively procured.

Committee members voted on a series of separate motions tied to HB 2007. The panel removed a proposed $40 million revolving-loan component for a new housing program, reduced the number of people to be removed from the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) waiver wait list in 2026, approved a telehealth pilot for students contingent on a request-for-proposal process, set interim review of contract nursing at state hospitals and adjusted several health-related payments.

Why it matters: HB 2007 sets the legislature’s spending priorities and the committee's amendments change how that money would be targeted. The most immediately consequential items affect long-waiting Kansans on the IDD waiver list, school mental-health access via telehealth, and grants that support child advocacy centers around the state.

Dylan, a legislative fiscal staffer who briefed the committee, told members the printed summary he was using lists the adjustments adopted in appropriations so far and detailed dozens of agency items. “What this document details is all of the adjustments that have been made in budget committees and adopted by the appropriations committees so far,” he said during the briefing.

Housing revolving loan removed

The committee removed $40 million that had been included in HB 2007 for a proposed revolving-loan program under a Kansas Housing Link account, citing duplication with the existing Kansas Housing Resource Corporation (KHRC) revolving-loan activity. The chair said the committee would preserve funding for specific housing infrastructure projects statewide but remove the new revolving-loan authority.

“The only items that we would, fund out of this fund would be the housing projects throughout the state because it was a statewide initiative,” the chair…