Conference committee agrees to amend HB 2028 with youth lifetime license tiers, nonresident waterfowl limits and a three‑year sunset

TOPEKA — On Feb. 13, 2025, a Kansas legislative conference committee reached agreement to amend House Bill 2028 to (1) restore two youth lifetime hunting-and-fishing license categories with different prices, (2) incorporate Senate Bill 213’s limits on when nonresidents may hunt migratory waterfowl, and (3) place a three‑year sunset on that nonresident waterfowl limitation while requiring the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to report back to standing committees.

The agreement would create two youth lifetime combination licenses: a birth‑to‑5 (five and younger) tier priced at $300 and a 6‑to‑15 tier priced at $400. The committee also discussed changes to the migratory waterfowl habitat stamp rates and the bill’s schedule for nonresident hunting days, and agreed to sunset the nonresident‑only day restrictions three years after the bill’s effective date and to request data reports from Wildlife and Parks in January 2026 and January 2027.

Why it matters: The package touches both recruitment of future Kansas hunters through youth lifetime licenses and management of migratory waterfowl hunting access for out‑of‑state hunters. Committee members said the item could affect lodging, travel and retail businesses that serve hunters, and they asked for data to assess effects before deciding whether to make the nonresident restriction permanent.

Details of the committee agreement

Committee members said the conference committee would amend HB 2028 so the kids lifetime…