March 2, 2007
Friends:
This is a short week in the legislature. We came back Wednesday
and debated the book-banning bill (HB 2200, see Floor Activities for
details). Thursday and Friday begin another busy committee time
because bills that passed the Senate are now being heard in House
committees. This makes for a slow time on the House floor because
bills have not had time to pass out of committees.
Many of you are clamoring for information about the progress of stem
cell research legislation. For those that have emailed me, rest
assured, I will not be voting for House Bill 2098. A short and
slower week allows for a more in-depth look at this issue discussed
below.
Stem Cell Update
Floor Activities
Education and Personal Activities
Commerce & Labor
Transportation
Government Efficiency & Technology
Where's Waldo
Kansas Quiz
Resources
Stem Cell Update
Where we are: There are four House bills floating around that did
not make it to debate in the House before last week’s deadline.
However, House leadership “blessed” the bills by referring them to
Federal & State Affairs, which is an exempt committee. If you
remember from my overview a few weeks ago, a bill is exempt from all
deadlines if it touches an exempt committee at any point (House
Appropriations, Tax, Fed & State, Calendar & Printing).
“Blessing” bills keeps them “alive” for the course of the
session.
If you thought your friends out-of-state gave you a hard time about
being from Kansas and the school board’s antics the past few years, the
legislature is going to make that look like a cakewalk!
HB 2098 (http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2098.pdf) simply
places in statute definitions for various scientific terms.
Sounds easy, right? Not so fast. For example, this bill
puts in law definitions of “cloning” that make it illegal to have
identical twins. The bill is developed from the definitions of the
President’s Council on Bioethics. Out of 18 people appointed to
the Council, only four are researchers. The rest are ethicists,
psychiatrists, lawyers, and professors of religion, morality, public
policy, political science, and international economics.
On the other hand, you have the National Academy of Sciences and the
National Institutes of Health. Their definitions clash with those
of the Bioethics Council, and I’ll let you decide which one you think
researchers recognize and under which they practice. How do we
think we can convince the Federal Bio- and Agro-Terrorism Facility to
relocate here when we want to make their scientists practice under
scientific definitions that aren’t recognized by any credible
scientist?
This link is for a side-by-side comparison of definitions that was
compiled by the Kansas Health Policy Authority:
http://www.khpa.ks.gov/LegislativeInformation/DHPF%20Testimony/stemcelllegislativestudy.pdf
This link is for the Legislative Research briefer:
http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN2098.pdf.
HB 2252 (http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2252.pdf) criminalizes
the commission, attempted commission, or participation in the act of
human cloning (per the definition above), making it a level 5 person
felony with a $250,000 fine.
HB 2254 (http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2254.pdf) does the
same thing for buying, selling, receiving or transferring a human
embryo, knowing it will be subjected to “destructive research”.
Among other things, this prevents those eggs that are sitting in
in-vitro fertilization clinic freezers, and will be tossed out after
five years, from being donated for research.
HB 2255 (http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2255.pdf) is the real
kicker, and due to committee action, this bill now includes the
definitions in HB 2098. It would prohibit the use of state funds
to do any of the following:
• Perform or attempt to perform human cloning (by
their definitions in HB 2098 above) to create a cloned embryo;
• Participate in an attempt to perform human cloning
to create a cloned embryo; or
• Ship or knowingly receive the product of human
cloning for any purpose.
Why is this a big deal?
1. I’ll start with the last, first. Insulin is
a cloned drug. If no one funded with state money can ship or
knowingly receive the product of cloning, KU Medical Center for one,
but also any hospital that receives state dollars, could not receive
shipments of insulin. If you can’t accept insulin, you don’t have
any to administer.
2. If KU, for instance, receives millions of dollars
in a private grant to develop a cancer cure using cloned breast cancer
cells, it could not perform that research, even though the money is
private. Why? Because the KU research labs are funded with
public monies. The salaries of the researchers are funded with
public monies. In fact, many state universities across the U.S.
are spending billions to avoid bills like this and are collecting
private dollars to build private buildings on private land so they can
use these private funds to do research benefiting the state!
Progress: HB 2255 was heard, amended to include HB 2098, and
passed the Health & Human Services Committee a few weeks ago.
It did not make it to debate on the House floor, so it was “blessed”
and referred to the Federal & State Affairs Committee. That
committee is holding another hearing on the bill on Tuesday, March 6th
at 1:30 pm in Room 313-S.
Legislative Research briefer:
http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN2255.pdf
Floor Activities
HB 2200 (http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2200.pdf) created
quite the stir in the education community because its goal was to
circumvent the authority of local school boards to determine materials
that are appropriate for instruction. This originated from the
inability of a small group of citizens in the Blue Valley School
District (many of whom did not even have children in the district) to
have certain books banned from English curriculum. Because they
were not able to get these books banned, they wanted to have them
declared obscene by the legislature so that district attorneys could
basically arrest teachers for teaching them!
Obviously, teachers and parents were very concerned about the
legislature usurping local control. The bill was referred back to
committee for further consideration.
Background:
http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN2200.pdf
Where's Waldo?
• Johnson County delegation luncheon sponsored by
Kansas Farm Bureau
• KS Association of Insurance Agents dinner with
constituent Paul Tozier
Kansas Quiz
Last Week’s Question: Name the Kansas born celebrity who graces a
commemorative stamp. When and where did she wear the dress
pictured on the stamp? Why did she attend this event and where
did she sit? Mention this pioneer’s last “first.”
Winner: Dean Vermeire of Lenexa won this week. He’s my
neighbor and his entire family volunteers for my campaign, but I swear
I didn’t give him preferential treatment! Mary just tells me who
won and I pass along the good tidings. Dean wins a sheet of
Hattie McDaniel stamps.
Answer: Hattie McDaniel – born in Wichita, raised in
Denver. 1940 Academy Awards/Ambassador’s Coconut Grove – first
African American to attend. Nominated for best supporting actress
in Gone with the Wind – first African American to win an Oscar. She sat
in the back row. “Last First”: Ms. McDaniel was the first African
American buried in Hollywood Cemetery.
Email my session assistant, Mary Koles at maryk@house.state.ks.us to
answer the question. The first correct answer received to that
address will win a prize, and recognition with the correct answer in
next week’s Sharp Record.
Question: It’s a current event – These Johnson County musicians are
“going places”. Who are they? Where are they on March 4th,
and what are they doing? What is TG4? Where will they be in the
evening on March 17?
This week’s winner will receive the band’s newest CD.
Resources
Keep Kansas Sharp Blog: www.keepkansassharp.blogspot.com
Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org
KS Ethics Commission: http://www.kansas.gov/ethics/
KS Legislative Research:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/klrd.html
Johnson County Election Office - www.jocoelection.org
Spring General Election is April 3, 2007
Johnson County Election Office, 2101 E. Kansas City Road, Olathe
Advance Voting starts March 27th:
* March 27 - March 30
Tuesday -
Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
* March 31
Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
* April 2
Monday 9:00 a.m. to noon
Next week’s committee schedule: See anything of interest to
you?
House Agenda:
http://www.kslegislature.org/agstat/2007/ha0302.pdf
Senate Agenda:
http://www.kslegislature.org/agstat/2007/sa0302.pdf
Please do not hesitate to contact me about these or any other issues of
interest to you. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in
Topeka.
Rep. Stephanie Sharp
17th District, Kansas House
Serving Lenexa and Shawnee
www.stephaniesharp.com
Home: 913-894-1201
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