The Kansas Legislature shields itself from public scrutiny through secrecy, confusing shell games and silenced opposition.

Republicans who control the legislative process conduct hearings with selective one-sided testimony and provide no advance notice of a committee’s plans to take action on significant legislation.

They refuse to acknowledge the authors or special interests involved in writing state policy. They may even delay the filing of a bill so that it can’t be reviewed by news reporters or opponents before holding a hearing on it.

They pass big-ticket items through end-of-session deals that materialize late at night, combine masses of bills — including some that haven’t received a hearing — and deny lawmakers the opportunity to amend legislation. They make it difficult

They make it difficult to track a bill’s progress through the end of session with the ubiquitous use of a process known as “gut and go,” in which they replace the entirety of a bill with the contents of a different bill. Even lawmakers get confused by this shell game as they try to figure out which bill number aligns with a particular policy. By hiding in darkness, the Legislature discourages public involvement in the policymaking process.

“The Legislature’s annual rites of secrecy serve special interests, not ordinary Kansans, and make it harder for voters to learn who is responsible for passing legislation adverse to the public interest,” said Max Kautsch, a 1st Amendment attorney, speaking on behalf of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government.

House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, said transparency in the Legislature “has gotten worse and worse” since he was first elected in 1987.

Lawmakers work for the taxpayers, Sawyer said, “and it can often feel like some forget that.”

“Between conference committee bill bundling and not giving public notice, our constituents are cut out of the process,” Sawyer said. “Gutand-go bills keep the public from tracking issues they care about. None of this is OK. We work for Kansans. We shouldn’t hide our work from them.”

Following are examples of the Legislature’s lack of transparency this session, and recommendations from the Kansas Coalition for Open Government to change the way the Legislature operates.

Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Baxter Springs Republican and chairman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, admonished a Democrat for questioning the validity of out-of-state testimony during a hearing on access to food assistance. (Sherman Smith/ Kansas Reflector)

The shell game

House Bill 2239 began as a two-page bill, sponsor unlisted, dealing with corporate tax code.

By the time the Legislature adopted the bill as a “conference committee report” on April 1, it had billowed into 94 pages of tax policy, fused from 29 separate pieces of legislation.

Some of that policy had not received a hearing or been considered by one of the two chambers. Most legislators had no time to review the bundle, which added up to a $90 million annual tax cut, and legislative rules prevented lawmakers from trying to amend the legislation. They voted for it anyway, 39-0 in the Senate and 103-10 in the House.

This is frequently how a bill becomes a law in Kansas.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work: A lawmaker, lobbyist, organization or resident of Kansas introduces a bill, under their name, in either chamber. For this example, the bill starts in the House.

GOP leadership assigns the bill to the relative committee, where the chair gives opponents and proponents the equal opportunity to testify at a hearing. The committee on a later date considers amendments to the bill, debates the issue, and votes to send it to the full House.

The 125-member House meets as a committee of the whole to consider any additional changes, debate the bill and vote to advance it. The next day, the House takes final action on the bill, and votes to approve it with a simple majority.

The bill then goes to the Senate, where it follows the same steps.

Three members of both chambers — four Republicans, two Democrats — get together as a “conference committee” to iron out any differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill. The two chambers then take a final vote on the “conference committee report.”

In reality, GOP leaders short-circuit the process by introducing legislation during the final stage. Virtually all prominent legislation now is a product of a gut and go and packaged in a conference committee report.

Consider the path lawmakers took with legislation that requires adults to work 30 hours a week or enroll in job training in order to receive federal food assistance.

Florida-based Opportunity Solutions Project introduced the model legislation, although the organization’s name didn’t appear as the sponsor when it was entered as Senate Bill 501. The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing on the bill March 10. The committee chairman, Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Baxter Springs Republican, admonished a Democrat for questioning the relevancy of out-of-state testimony on the topic.

On March 17, the Senate committee held an impromptu meeting at the railing overlooking the Statehouse rotunda. There, the panel gutted House Bill 2448, which dealt with foster care licensing, and replaced it with the restrictions on food aid. The original contents of House Bill 2448 had already been inserted into House Bill 2158, which previously was a public health bill, and passed into law a year ago.

The Senate on March 23 adopted the food restrictions now contained in House Bill 2448. The policy never received a hearing in the House.