Committee on Water advances three bills on operator certification, pump contractor licensure and Kansas Water Office funding

The Committee on Water advanced three new bill requests and adopted prior meeting minutes during a committee meeting.

Representative Beckert introduced RS0615 "This bill has to do with, the certification of water operators, the fee change in that," and, after a call for questions and objections, the chair said, "Seeing no objections, we'll move that forward." Representative Vaughn introduced 25RS0282 "concerning the licensure for pump installation contractors, and introducing it on behalf of the Kansas Groundwater Association," which the committee also moved forward by unanimous consent. The chair requested 25RS0021 to "provide for additional funding for the Kansas Water Office, some additional 2 to 1 match for conservation districts," and committee members raised no objections to moving it forward.

Earlier in the meeting Representative Stockdale moved to adopt the minutes from the Jan. 14, 2016 and Jan. 21 (dates as read), Representative Essex seconded, and the minutes were adopted by voice vote after the chair called for the ayes. No roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript.

All three bill introductions were advanced without formal roll-call votes; the transcript records the chair treating each introduction as approved by unanimous consent after asking for objections. The committee scheduled further presentations and hearings at future meetings, including presentations from the Kansas Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey noted later in the agenda.

The transcript supplies only the bill identifiers and brief descriptions read into the record; the text, sponsors' full bill language and any fiscal notes were not specified during the introductions and will appear in subsequent committee materials or hearings.