By Donn Teske
Behind closed doors politics here in Kansas.
Okay. Last week I ranted about Senator Powell, well this week it's Representative Sharon Schwartz. SB 191 was the Senate pro-corporate Ag bill working its way through the system until all at once last week when it was to be worked it wasn't. All week. Surely it didn't have anything to do with all the great press bashing the pro-corporate bill??
On Tuesday of this week Sec of Ag Rodman and staff were working the Senate Natural Resources committee members hard. Apparently they didn't like what they heard.
Late on Tuesday, March 19, all at once HB 2404 appeared on the calendar to be heard and worked by the House Ag Committee on Wednesday, March 20 at 3:30pm. The weird thing is that HB 2404 didn't exist two days ago, long after turn-around. AND, surprise, surprise, it's EXACTLY the same wording as SB 191.
HB2404 was introduced and blessed by House Taxation and immediately referred to House Ag. This doesn't surprise me, Representative Schwartz has had a passion to push through corporate Ag for years but especially hard the last two years.
If the pro-corporate ag / anti-family farms & county rights bill was really so good for the Kansas citizens and the economy it shouldn't have to be worked in the back door. It should be able to stand on its own legs in the light of day and the members forced to push it through shouldn't have to be ashamed of their votes.
We will be there monitoring the hearing and when 2404 is worked we are going to report which representatives voted for corporate Ag and killing county rights and which voted for family farmers and county rights!
Keep up with the corporate ag legislation, and other happenings in our state capitol at kfucapitolbeat.com.
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