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February 25, 2005

Friends:

Due to some computer struggles, I am very delayed in announcing my new-and-improved legislative survey! Check out my online survey! Constituents will be receiving a postcard to alert you to the online version, or a paper copy can be made available for those without internet access. You must input your email address and mailing address, that way I can separate out the results into three categories: 1) constituents, 2) interested parties, and 3) total readership. Please take a moment to answer 20 quick questions – your participation is crucial to how I vote in Topeka!

87^th Street Article

Personal Activities and Education

Floor Activities - Turnaround

Where’s Waldo

Resources

87^th Street Article

Please make note of the front page article in yesterday’s KC Star with specific details about the upcoming changes at 87^th/69/35. This construction will impact the 17^th District especially – the detours will be heavily traveled and “bookend” our district.

Personal Activities and Education

The House’s Select Committee on Education plan was submitted this week. I will add it to my overview of plans, but need to pick up the materials, so give me a day!

Floor Activities - Turnaround

Committees this week just passed out bills, I’ll talk about the interesting ones below, but before we start, a jargon glossary:

Exempt Committee – There are a handful of committees in the Senate and the House (Federal and State Affairs, Taxation, and Appropriations) that if a bill is sent there, it can remain “alive” throughout the session. The bill can be referred there permanently for hearings, or if the leadership wishes a particular bill to stay alive, they will “bless” the bill by referring it to one of these committees, and then back to a committee related to the topic of the bill.

Turnaround – All bills that have not left their “house of origin” die after today for the rest of this session. So if a bill started in the Senate, it must be passed to the House by today, and vice versa. The exception to this rule is exempt bills, which stay alive!

Bills: We worked more than 60 bills on the floor this week. These are the highlights.

Sub HB 2114 – the “dram shop” bill. Would have made your local bartender liable if s/he served someone they knew was drunk, and that drunk person injured themselves or someone else. This bill did not even pass on General Orders. I think most people opposed this bill based on the premise of personal accountability.

HB 2284 - allows mothers to breastfeed “anywhere they have a legal right to be.” The men of the House loved this bill, you’d be surprised how many adults are still afraid to talk about the human anatomy. A constituent asked me earlier this year to exempt breastfeeding mothers from jury duty. I submitted that amendment to this bill and it passed! The bill is headed over to the Senate with my amendment!

Final Action: 118 – 5. I voted YES.

HB 2262 - this is the “observed holiday” bill I mentioned last week… If there are a couple of observed holidays during your legal deadline time, they are to be recognized as holidays.

Final Action: 123 – 1. I voted YES.

HB 2304 - the “inject or ingest” bill – you can be charged with possession if an illegal substance is in your blood, but you don’t have it in your hands, house, surroundings, etc. (previous definition of “possess”).

Final Action: 117 – 6. I voted YES.

2443 and 2444 - Economic development bills encouraging film production in Kansas through tax credits and investment tax credits.

2443 Final Action: 98 – 24. I voted YES.

2444 Final Action: 99 – 23. I voted YES.

HB 2077 - a cancer drug repository bill. This bill would enable you to donate your unused (still in bubble packaging) cancer drugs to a repository that will provide life-saving drug access to those who can’t afford them.

Final Action: 122 – 0. I voted YES.

HB 2004 - creates the crime of trafficking in persons. This is pretty horrid stuff. These horrible people go to poor countries, find poor families and promise them money for work for their daughters. In the U.S., they prey on runaways, turn these women into indentured servants or prostitutes paying for “paperwork for citizenship applications”. Although still under-the-radar in Kansas, investigations are currently underway.

Final Action: 122 – 0. I voted YES.

HB 2241 - this bill would prohibit inspection reports (which are public information) of nursing homes from being used in civil suits. Basically what this means is that if your aunt is in a nursing home and dies from bedsore infections, and your family sues the nursing home, you would not be able to use previous instances of bedsores documented in inspection reports!

Final Action: 53 – 69. I voted NO.

Where’s Waldo (Rep. Sharp)? February 21-25, 2005

(Besides session and committee meetings 9am – 5 pm)

Meeting with students from Fort Hays State University about higher education funding
Chair massage day at the Capitol (arguably one of my all-time favorite events!)
Lunches:
- Kansas 4-H
- Johnson County delegation sponsored by the KS Assn of Broadcasters
Receptions/Dinners:
- Kansas Community Bankers
- Kansas Bar Assn
- Dinner w/Governor Sebelius @ Cedar Crest – this was my annual invite, she invites 20-30 legislators at a time, throughout the session, for dinner at the governor’s mansion.