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Senate and House negotiators agree to consolidate several criminal statutes into House Bill 23‑47
Summary
Conference negotiators discussed folding multiple Senate criminal bills—including changes to theft penalties and provisions on laser pointers and fraudulent use of gift cards—into House Bill 23‑47; the Senate reported an amendment raising the penalty for certain motor-vehicle thefts passed the Senate 39–0.
Conference negotiators for the Kansas Legislature spent the session discussing consolidation of several criminal statutes into House Bill 23‑47, including a Senate amendment that would increase penalties for some motor-vehicle thefts.
The Senate representative said the Senate amendment would make theft of a motor vehicle valued between $500 and $1,500 a level 10 nonperson felony; that amendment, the speaker said, passed the Senate 39–0. Negotiators discussed folding the contents of Senate Bill 156 (unlawful use of a laser pointer) and Senate Bill 84 (criminal use of financial/gift cards) into House Bill 23‑47. The House side asked for time to consult staff and caucus on whether it could concur on all of the proposed inclusions.
Senate negotiators proposed additionally adding the contents of Senate Bill 71 to the package. A House member noted Senate Bill 71 had not been passed across the full House floor and therefore had not been considered in the House chamber, but said members in the House caucus supported including it. The parties left some items open for further discussion and agreed to continue talks the following day.
Why it matters: combining multiple criminal provisions into a single conference vehicle can speed final passage but also bundles disparate policy changes into one measure, which affects floor consideration and the scope of final conference committee reports.
Details and next steps: negotiators agreed conceptually that the three theft- and fraud-related Senate bills could be assembled into House Bill 23‑47; the reviser confirmed the content-sharing intent. House members asked that the record note that one of the bills being offered for inclusion (Senate Bill 71) had not been taken up on the House floor. The parties agreed to continue negotiations and to reconvene to finalize offers and possible conference committee reports.
Votes and formal outcomes reported during the session included the Senate vote on the motor-vehicle-theft amendment (39–0). No final conference committee report for House Bill 23‑47 was filed during this meeting.
