Welfare committee accepts five committee-sponsored bill-draft requests including SNAP purchase restriction waiver request

MANHATTAN, Kan. — The Committee on Welfare Reform accepted five committee-sponsored requests for bill drafts at its organizational meeting and approved moving them forward to the drafting process with no objections.

Representative Francis Aerykamp, chair of the Committee on Welfare Reform, read the five RS numbers the committee had requested: RS 0057 (a reorganization of the public assistance statute), RS 0209 (directing the Secretary of Children and Families to request a SNAP waiver to prohibit purchase of candy and soft drinks with food assistance), RS 0059 (directing the Secretary to review and compare data for public assistance eligibility), RS 0068 (requiring custodial and noncustodial parents to cooperate with child-support enforcement for food-assistance eligibility and disqualifying parents delinquent on support), and RS 0142 (prohibiting counties and cities from implementing universal income programs).

After staff explained that draft requests remain private while in development and will be publicly available once introduced on the House floor and assigned a bill number, the chair asked if there were any objections. “Are there any objections?” he asked. With none raised, the committee accepted the requests.

The committee clerk and staff said they will maintain and distribute a running list of bill numbers assigned to the committee as drafts become public. The Revisor’s Office and Legislative Research Department will provide crosswalks and background materials where appropriate before future hearings.