Leading Republican lawmakers announced late Thursday that they have collected enough signatures to force to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to call a historic special session Thanksgiving week to fight back against federal health mandates.
All 29 Republicans in the Senate and 85 Republicans in the House signed the petition, forcing Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to call the Legislature back for a special session to address federal vaccine mandates that are now being challenged in court.
The Senate and the House needed signatures from two-thirds of their members to force the governor to call a special session. The Senate needed 27 signatures. The House traditonally needs 84 but needed 83 with the death of Rep. Russ Jennings.
Never before has the Legislature called itself into a special session.
Originally, the Kansas constitution only allowed the governor to call a special session, but it was amended in 1972 to allow the Legislature to petition the governor to call a special session.
Of the six special sessions held since the constitutional amendment was passed, none have been the result of legislative petition.
There have been 24 special sessions held in Kansas, the first in 1874 to deal with a grasshopper destruction of crops and the most recent in 2020 to pass revisions to the state’s emergency management law.
“This unprecedented action is necessitated by equally unprecedented actions from the Biden administration that enacted these mandates unilaterally, without respecting the constitutional law making power reserved for Congress,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins and Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch said in a joint statement.
“Never before has the federal government forced Kansans to choose between their personal beliefs and their livelihoods.”
The proposed session would be held Thanksgiving week, starting Nov. 22.
Lawmakers want to address only two bills during the special session.
One proposal would allow Kansans to collect unemployment benefits if they’re fired for refusing to comply with a federal vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more employees.
A second proposal would allow Kansans to declare an exemption from the vaccine mandate based on their sincerely held religious belief or a medical reason.
The bill would bar businesses from asking questions to determine the veracity of a claim about a sincerely held religious belief.
The legislation would allow anyone who was denied a religious waiver to bring a lawsuit in which they not only could recover actual damages, but they could collect their attorney’s fees as well.
“We’re not going to let the Biden administration force businesses to play God or doctor and determine whether a religious or medical exemption is valid or not. We’re going to trust individual Kansans,” Senate President Ty Masterson said.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has publicly been noncommittal about calling a special session, although an email that went to Democratic House members said the governor opposed the special session.
Democratic lawmakers in the House were urged not to sign a petition because of opposition to the special session from the governor and Senate Democrats.
A spokesman from her office could not be reached for comment Thursday night. And the Democratic leadership offices in the House and Senate were mum.
If the House can get the 84 signatures it needs for a special session, it would be a marked turn of events from a month ago when a faction of conservative lawmakers came up well short of the two-thirds needed to call a special session.
Led by Rep. Tatum Lee and Sen. Alicia Straub, the group of Republican lawmakers collected 19 signatures calling for a special session, but they didn’t have the support of Republican leadership in the House or the Senate.
Kansas could be at least the fifth state to address COVID-19 health mandates during a special session.
Two other states – Wyoming and Tennessee – have already held special sessions addressing COVID-19 health mandates. Florida is holding a special session Nov. 15-19.
The Wyoming Legislature passed one bill that allocated $4 million to legally fight the federal vaccine mandate.
Wyoming lawmakers had 40 bills at the start of its special session and ended with one. The seven-day session was believed to have cost taxpayers $25,000 a day.
Tennessee wrapped up its special session on COVID-19 health mandates last weekend, passing several pieces of legislation that curtailed health restrictions.
Tennesse lawmakers passed bills that bar government agencies, schools and most private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines or proof of vaccination.
Public universities in Tennessee can petition the state to keep mask and vaccine requirements if they can show they would lose federal funds.
A special session that was supposed to be for redistricting in Alabama included some COVID-19 bills, including one that passed that bars employers from firing a worker who refuses a vaccine and claims an exemption for religious or medical reasons.
Alabama lawmakers also passed a bill requiring parental consent for minors to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
