Week 9 Kansas Statehouse Recap: 🗣 Protest 🦠 State of Emergency 🚑 Hospital Closure ⏳ and more
WEEK 9 VIDEO SCRIPT
Intro
Hey I’m Davis Hammet with Loud Light. Here’s what happened the 9th week in the Kansas Statehouse.
Medicaid Protest
Tuesday, there was a Medicaid expansion protest that led to a blockade in front of the Senate chamber doors. While the action occurred, many Senators used alternative entrances, but videos show what appears to be Sen. Rucker (R) pushing over a disabled man then scolding him after security helped him up. Over 20 Kansans were detained and held before being released with their information forwarded to the District Attorney.
Hospital Closure
The Sumner County Hospital in Wellington abruptly closed on Thursday. Local officials cited financial difficulties in part from all the uncompensated care associated with the state’s lack of Medicaid expansion. The area is represented by Sen. Larry Alley (R) an opponent of expansion. Residents will now need to travel 35 miles to Wichita for emergency care.
State of Emergency (COVID-19)
This week Kansas had its first death from the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The Wyandotte county man who died was in his 70’s and had not traveled meaning the disease is now community spread. In response, Gov. Kelly declared a state of emergency. Pres. Trump has also declared a national state of emergency. These declarations allow additional government resources to be mobilized, grant certain powers, put the state’s price-gouging law into effect to prevent profiteering off the pandemic, and the Statehouse was locked down to only legislators and people with official business.
Response (COVID-19)
Colleges across the state are extending spring break and transitioning classes online, many counties are shutting down K-12 schools for at least 2 weeks, sporting events and other gatherings are being canceled, and in some places large gatherings are being banned.
Why (COVID-19)
You may be wondering why the government is taking such strong actions on COVID-19 when it’s symptoms are similar to the flu. People have dealt with the flu for many hundreds of years, have natural defenses to it, vaccines that create barriers to its spread, and we usually know we have the flu 2 days after getting it. COVID-19 is a unique virus. We don’t have natural defenses to it, we don’t have a vaccine for it, and it appears most people don’t show symptoms until they’ve had it for 5 days. It’s not the flu - it’s a new virus that exists in addition to the flu. The government's goal right now is slowing the diseases spread to prevent the health system from being overloaded. The reason some of these measures are so broad is that we do not have the testing capacity to know exactly where the disease is and we do not have the hospital capacity to handle a big spike in cases among immunosuppressed and elderly populations.
Ending
State legislatures across the country have begun adjourning early. The only thing the Kansas legislature must do before leaving is pass a budget. The Kansas House came together in a stunningly unified effort to extend the Governor’s emergency declaration through the end of the year, and set aside differences to pass a basic preliminary budget. Meanwhile, the Senate left early for the weekend and did not return despite pleas from the House to negotiate the budget over the weekend.
Coming Up
There are a lot of big hearings scheduled for next week, but given the pandemic it’s expected most legislators want to pass a budget as quickly as possible and adjourn. If that happens the legislature will likely come back in May for an extended wrap up session to finish state business and tweak the budget.
Outro
Thanks for liking, sharing, and contributing. Stay tuned, stay engaged, stay clean, stay away from any unnecessary social interactions, and until next time thank you so much Kansas!