Social Services Budget Committee plans agency site visits, virtual tours as budget work wraps up

The Committee on Social Services Budget moved on logistics for next week's work and agreed to pursue a series of agency site visits and virtual tours to connect budget decisions to agency operations, the committee chair said.

Members were given an outline of the tentative schedule: the chair said the office of early childhood and the Department for Children and Families (DCF) are most likely to appear on Monday, with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) likely to follow on Tuesday. The chair said a legislative post audit team will provide a brief on Monday, and staffers Francie and Amanda are arranging tours and logistics.

Why it matters: committee members said seeing agency operations firsthand would help translate budget numbers into program needs and make the incoming committee and legislative counterparts aware of priorities before the Appropriations Committee takes up the budget.

Representative Carbon urged proactive sharing of the committee's work with others. "The Appropriations Committee should not be surprised at anything that we have put in that budget," he said, urging staff to disseminate recommendations and for Amanda and Shardae to compile a briefing book to share with Senate counterparts.

The chair also proposed a list of possible site visits that members may do in the coming weeks: Breakthrough House (or a local clubhouse model), Inclusion Connections in Olathe, Larner State Hospital, agency office visits with DCF and KDADS, and visits to CDO or Cottonwood. The chair told members to think of three or four visits the committee could make and suggested picking one a week if a full visit would take longer than a typical committee meeting.

For members unable to travel, Representative Rivas asked whether virtual walkthroughs or Zoom tours could be arranged so facilities could "show us a lot of their facilities." The chair said staff are working logistics and suggested that some trips could be completed as single-day drives; he briefly joked about using state aviation resources to make travel feasible.

Several members emphasized follow-up items: staff were asked to provide materials on one-time expenditures from the last session and to flag any additional information members believe would support the budget requests. A member asked staff to reach out if they need more information in defense of the committee's requests.

The committee did not take formal votes or adopt motions during this session. The chair closed the meeting after asking for any final items and instructing members to forward suggested visits and supporting materials: "Going once, going twice. We are adjourned."