Senate panel approves Commerce budget position, restores EDIF funds and greenlights hangar and sunflower-summer add-ons

TOPEKA — The Senate Ways and Means Committee on March 3 approved a committee position on the Department of Commerce fiscal 2026 budget that restores $31,069,866 to the Economic Development Initiatives Fund (EDIF) and includes two later amendments adding $15,500,000 for a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hangar project and $2,000,000 for the Sunflower Summer program.

The committee heard from Shardae Kane of Legislative Research, who presented Commerce budget worksheets and program details, and from Rachel Willis, director of legislative affairs for the Department of Commerce, who described the department’s proposed FY26 base allocations and said the Commerce proposal “is not an increase in any shape” but an attempt to return to a FY26 base allocation. Willis also reviewed an international-recruitment summary that lists at least 10 foreign capital investment projects tied to Commerce international work and a $4.8 billion figure listed under Asia; Willis said that figure reflects committed private capital investment and does not subtract any incentives.

Why it matters: The EDIF funding and the approved add-ons are discretionary state economic-development appropriations that the committee will forward to the full Senate Ways and Means Committee as the chamber fashions a final budget. The votes change the chamber’s position relative to the House and will affect which Commerce programs have restored or increased funding in the Senate budget proposal.

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