Kansas Legislature

Last updated

Kansas Legislature
Great Seal of the State of Kansas Colored.svg
Type
Type
Houses Senate
House of Representatives
Term limits
None
Leadership
Ty Masterson (R)
since January 14, 2021
Vice President of the Senate
Rick Wilborn (R)
since January 14, 2021
Speaker of the House
Daniel Hawkins (R)
since January 9, 2023
Speaker Pro Tem
Blake Carpenter (R)
since January 9, 2023
Structure
Seats165 voting members
  • 40 senators
  • 125 representatives
Kansas Senate 2022.svg
Senate political groups
  •   Republican (29)
  •   Democratic (11)
Kansas House of Reps 2022.svg
House political groups
Length of term
 Senate: 4 years
House: 2 years
Elections
Last Senate election
 November 8, 2020
Last House election
 November 8, 2022
Next Senate election
 November 5, 2024
Next House election
 November 5, 2024
Meeting place
Topeka Capitol.jpg
Kansas State Capitol
Topeka
Website
Kansas Legislature
Constitution
Constitution of Kansas

The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 state representatives, and the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 state senators. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, senators for four-year terms.

Contents

Prior to statehood, separate pro-slavery and anti-slavery territorial legislatures emerged, drafting four separate constitutions, until one was finally ratified and Kansas became a state in 1861. Republicans hold a long-standing supermajority in both houses of the state legislature, despite a short-lived dominance by the Populist Party. The state legislature approved one of the first child labor laws in the nation.

Composed of 165 state lawmakers, the state legislature meets at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka once a year in regular session. Additional special sessions can be called by the governor.

History

Pre-statehood

Planned Lecompton, Kansas, state capitol, unbuilt except for foundation Planned Lecompton, Kansas state capitol.jpg
Planned Lecompton, Kansas, state capitol, unbuilt except for foundation

The Kansas Territory was created out of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854. [1] In several of the provisions of the act, the law allowed the settlers of the newly created territory to determine, by vote, whether Kansas, once statehood was achieved, would be entered as either a free or a slave state. [2] The act created a rush of both abolitionist Northern and pro-slavery Southern immigrants to the territory, hoping that strength through numbers would place Kansas in their camp. Animosities between the newly arrived sides quickly turned into open violence and guerrilla warfare, giving name to this period known as Bleeding Kansas. [2]

During Kansas' first elections for a territorial government on March 30, 1855, nearly 5,000 Missouri men, led by United States Senator David Rice Atchison and other prominent pro-slavery Missourians, entered the territory, took over the polling places, and elected pro-slavery candidates. [3] The elections resulted in 12 pro-slavery members of the upper house of the territorial legislature and one free-state member, who resigned before taking his seat; the lower house ended up with 25 pro-slavery members and one free-state member, the latter of whom resigned following the ouster of the other Free-State members. [4] Free-Staters immediately cried foul, naming the new Kansas Territorial Legislature the Bogus Legislature. [5] [6] After meeting for one week in Pawnee at the direction of Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder, the thirty-eight pro-slavery legislators reconvened at the Shawnee Manual Labor School between July 16 and August 30, 1855, [6] and began crafting over a thousand pages of laws aimed at making Kansas a slave state.

Free-Staters convened their own unauthorized shadow legislature and territorial government in Topeka, crafting their own Topeka Constitution in late 1855. While the document was debated and submitted to a vote in the territory, it was never accepted by Congress. [7] The pro-slavery territorial legislature's response to the Free-Staters and growing violence was the Lecompton Constitution in 1857. Due to an electoral boycott by abolitionist groups and the questions regarding the validity of the legislature itself, it never officially became law.

While the Lecompton Constitution was debated, new elections for the territorial legislature in 1857 gave the Free-Staters a majority government, caused in part by a boycott by pro-slavery groups. With this new mandate, the legislature convened to write the Leavenworth Constitution, a radically progressive document for the Victorian era in its wording of rights for women and African-Americans. The constitution was adopted in 1858, though it too suffered the same fate as previous documents when Congress refused to ratify it.

Following the Leavenworth Constitution's defeat, the territorial legislature again crafted a new document the following year, dubbed the Wyandotte Constitution. A compromise of sorts, it outlawed slavery in the territory, while removing progressive sections on Native Americans, women, and blacks. The territorial legislature passed the document, and submitted it to public referendum. It was ratified by the Kansas electorate on October 4, 1859.

Statehood to present

Southern senators blocked the admission of Kansas as a free state, which would have added to the number of free state senators. When they withdrew after seven states seceded, in January of 1861, Kansas's admission as a free state, effective January 29, was approved within hours. On February 8, the Confederate States of America was formed.

The first Kansas impeachments occurred in 1862, brought about in part by Republican Party infighting in the state. [8]

The election of state officers under the Wyandotte Constitution took place in December 1859, but because of the delay in approving Kansas's statehood, they did not take their positions until February 1861. [8] The lapse of time created a constitutional question as to the expiration of the two-year terms for which Governor Charles L. Robinson and the chief administrative officers were elected, with Robinson's opponents calling for a November 1861 election. [8] Robinson refused to permit the canvassing of votes for the offices in the 1861 election and his position was upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court. [8]

The state legislature brought impeachment trials against the governor, Kansas Secretary of State J. W. Robinson and State Auditor George S. Hillyer, over what they believed to be the unlawful sale of state bonds to help raise Union troops. [8] They were convicted of selling state bonds in direct violation of the laws of the state, but found innocent of conspiracy and other articles of impeachment. [8] Only three state senators voted to impeach the governor, who was less directly involved in the sale of the bonds. [8]

In 1867, a constitutional amendment was sent to voters to allow women to vote, but failed. [9]

State offices began to move from the Old Constitutional Hall to the east wing of the Kansas State Capitol in 1869, which was still undergoing construction. [10] The state legislature first met there in 1870, though the east wing was not completed until 1873. [10] Work would continue on the building until March 24, 1903. [10]

On February 19, 1881, Kansas became the first state to amend its constitution to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. [11] This action was spawned by the temperance movement, and was enforced by the ax-toting Carrie Nation beginning in 1888. [11] After 1890, prohibition was joined with progressivism to create a reform movement. [11] Kansas did not repeal prohibition until 1948, and even then it continued to prohibit public bars until 1987. [11]

The Populist Party was a significant third party movement in Kansas during the 1890s and peaked in the fall elections of 1892, when the ticket won the governor's office, four congressional seats, and control of the Kansas Senate. [12] Populists and Republicans both claimed control of the Kansas House of Representatives, with the Populists accusing the Republican Party of election fraud. [12] The dispute resulted in separate Populist-led and Republican-led Houses in 1893 that at first shared the chamber but later met in separate locations in the Kansas State Capitol after the Republican-led House took control of the chamber on February 15, 1893. [12] The Kansas Supreme Court eventually sided with the Republicans and the Populist-led House disbanded. [12]

The state legislature was a leader in child labor reform, enacting a law in 1905 to restrict children under 14 from working in factories, meatpacking houses, or mines. [13]

Kansas was a center of the progressive movement, with support from the middle classes, editors such as William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette, and the prohibitionists. [14] With the help of progressive state legislators, women gained the right to vote through a constitutional amendment approved by Kansans on November 5, 1912. [9]

Between 1922 and 1927, there were several legal battles between Kansas and the Ku Klux Klan, resulting in their expulsion from the state. [15]

The Kansas Legislature adopted the flag of Kansas in 1927.

Since 1966, the legislature holds annual general sessions. Previously, the session in odd-numbered years was of unlimited duration while in even-numbered years the session was limited to 60 calendar days (unless two-thirds of the elected members of each house voted to extend it). A constitutional amendment adopted at the 1974 general election extended the duration of the session held in the even-numbered years to 90 calendar days, still subject to extension by a vote of two-thirds of the elected membership of each house. [16]

Legislative procedure

The Kansas Legislature is composed of 165 part-time legislators, meeting normally once a year. Meetings begin in January and usually will last for a period of 90 days. The governor of Kansas retains the power to call a special legislative session if needed.

Bills

A proposed law is introduced in the state legislature as a bill. There are seven basic steps to the life of a bill: the introduction, standing committee action, a vote by the Committee of the Whole, floor passage, action by the second house, action by the governor and publication of the law. [17]

When a bill is introduced its title is read, it is printed and distributed to members of the house of origin, and it is referred to a standing committee. [17] Standing committee chairs decide whether or not to hear a bill and members of the committee can submit amendments to the bill. [17] After consideration and discussion, the committee votes on whether or not to send a committee report to the Committee of the Whole. [17] While under consideration by the Committee of the Whole, amendments can be submitted by state legislators in the house of origin. [17] The final action in the house of origin is a vote by the full membership. [17]

Bills go through an identical process in the opposite house of the state legislature. [17] After passage by both houses, a bill is submitted to the governor, who either signs it into law or vetoes it. If vetoed, the bill only becomes law if both houses of the legislature vote to override the veto with a two-thirds majority of their membership. [17]

Legislative Staff Support Agencies

The Kansas Legislature is supported by five non-partisan staff support agencies: Legislative Administrative Services, Legislative Division of Post Audit, Kansas Legislative Research Department, Office of the Revisor of Statutes, and Office of Information Services. The offices of the Chief Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate are responsible for the operations of the respective chambers under the direction of elected leadership.

Legislative Administrative Services Legislative Administrative Services provides administrative and technical support for the Kansas Legislature and general public, as directed by the Legislative Coordinating Council.

Legislative Division of Post Audit The Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit is the non-partisan audit arm of the Kansas Legislature.

Kansas Legislative Research Department KLRD staff members provide nonpartisan, objective research and fiscal analysis for members of the Kansas Legislature.

Legislative Office of Information Services The office provides information technology support to Legislators and Legislative support staff.

Office of the Revisor of Statutes The office provides legislative legal expertise to the Kansas Legislature. Attorneys in the office are responsible for drafting bills and other legislation, staffing legislative committees, publishing the Kansas Statutes Annotated, and offering legal consultation to members of the Kansas Legislature

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Legislature</span> Bicameral legislature of California

The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly and the California State Senate. Both houses of the Legislature convene at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland General Assembly</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Maryland

The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower chamber, the Maryland House of Delegates, has 141 representatives. Members of both houses serve four-year terms. Each house elects its own officers, judges the qualifications and election of its own members, establishes rules for the conduct of its business, and may punish or expel its own members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bleeding Kansas</span> Violent slavery-related confrontations in Kansas territory in latter half of 1850s

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Senate</span> Upper house of the Michigan Legislature

The Michigan Senate is the upper house of the Michigan Legislature. Along with the Michigan House of Representatives, it composes the state legislature, which has powers, roles and duties defined by Article IV of the Michigan Constitution, adopted in 1963. The primary purpose of the Legislature is to enact new laws and amend or repeal existing laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee General Assembly</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Tennessee

The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Speaker of the Senate carries the additional title and office of Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee. In addition to passing a budget for state government plus other legislation, the General Assembly appoints three state officers specified by the state constitution. It is also the initiating body in any process to amend the state's constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland Senate</span> Upper house of the state legislature

The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single-member districts, the Senate is responsible, along with the Maryland House of Delegates, for passage of laws in Maryland, and for confirming executive appointments made by the Governor of Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Topeka Constitution</span> 1855 proposed constitution of Kansas Territory

The Topeka Constitutional Convention met from October 23 to November 11, 1855 in Topeka, Kansas Territory, in a building afterwards called Constitution Hall. It drafted the Topeka Constitution, which banned slavery in Kansas, though it would also have prevented free blacks from living in Kansas. The convention was organized by Free-Staters to counter the pro-slavery Territorial Legislature elected March 5, 1855, in polling tainted significantly by electoral fraud and the intimidation of Free State voters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wisconsin Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house, Wisconsin State Senate, and the lower Wisconsin State Assembly, both of which have had Republican majorities since January 2011. With both houses combined, the legislature has 132 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. The legislature convenes at the state capitol in Madison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona State Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Arizona

The Arizona State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Senate. Composed of 90 legislators, the state legislature meets in the Capitol Complex in the state capital of Phoenix. Created by the Arizona Constitution upon statehood in 1912, the Arizona State Legislature met biennially until 1950. Since then they meet annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyman Trumbull</span> American politician (1813–1896)

Lyman Trumbull was an American lawyer, judge, and politician who represented the state of Illinois in the United States Senate from 1855 to 1873. Trumbull was a leading abolitionist attorney and key political ally to Abraham Lincoln and authored several landmark pieces of reform as chair of the Judiciary Committee during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, including the Confiscation Acts, which created the legal basis for the Emancipation Proclamation; the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished chattel slavery; and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which led to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Alabama

The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both chambers serve four-year terms and in which all are elected in the same cycle. The most recent election was on November 8, 2022. The new legislature assumes office immediately following the certification of the election results by the Alabama Secretary of State which occurs within a few days following the election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama Senate</span> Upper house of the Alabama legislature

The Alabama State Senate is the upper house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The body is composed of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, with each district containing at least 127,140 citizens. Similar to the lower house, the Alabama House of Representatives, the senate serves both without term limits and with a four-year term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oklahoma Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Oklahoma

The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate are the two houses that make up the bicameral state legislature. There are 101 state representatives, each serving a two-year term, and 48 state senators, who serve four-year terms that are staggered so only half of the Oklahoma Senate districts are eligible in each election cycle. Legislators are elected directly by the people from single member districts of equal population. The Oklahoma Legislature meets annually in the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah State Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Utah

The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term limits for either chamber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oklahoma House of Representatives</span> Lower house of Oklahomas legislature

The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's budget. The upper house of the Oklahoma Legislature is the Oklahoma Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oklahoma Senate</span> Upper house of Oklahomas legislature

The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas House of Representatives</span> Lower house of the government of Kansas

The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for crafting and voting on legislation, helping to create a state budget, and legislative oversight over state agencies. Representatives are elected to two-year terms. The Kansas House of Representatives does not have term limits. The legislative session convenes at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas Senate</span> Upper House of the Kansas government

The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of about 73,000 inhabitants. Members of the Senate are elected to a four-year term. There is no limit to the number of terms that a senator may serve. The Kansas Senate meets at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka.

Washington ratified its constitution and held its first state elections in 1889, the year it was admitted to the union as a state. It established the positions of governor, lieutenant governor, Secretary of State, attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor, Commissioner of Public Lands, and Superintendent of Public Instruction. The position of insurance commissioner was legislatively established in 1907. All positions are elected to four-year terms, concurrent with presidential elections. Washington is one of three states that elects nine separate statewide officials, while six others elect ten.

Under U.S. law, a state requires a constitution. A main order of business for Territorial Kansas was the creation of a constitution, under which Kansas would become a state. Whether it would be a slave state or a free state, allowing or prohibiting slavery, was a national issue, because it would affect voting in the polarized U.S. Senate. Because of tensions over slavery, four quite different constitutions of Kansas were drafted.

References

  1. ↑ Johannsen. Robert W. Stephen A. Douglas (1973) ISBN   0-19-501620-3
  2. 1 2 Goodrich, Thomas. War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1861 (2004)
  3. ↑ Billings, R. A. (1949). Westward Expansion. New York NY: Macmillan. pp. 599–601.
  4. ↑ Andreas, Alfred T. (1883). History of the State of Kansas. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL: A. T. Andreas. pp. 101–103. Retrieved November 13, 2023– via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Miner, Craig (2002). Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854–2000 ( ISBN   0-7006-1215-7)
  6. 1 2 Clark, Charles. "Kansas Bogus Legislature". kansasboguslegislature.org.
  7. ↑ James, Richardson. "A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ewing, Cortez A. M. "Early Kansas Impeachments," Kansas Historical Quarterly, August 1932 (Vol. 1, No. 4), p. 307-325, digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society. (accessed July 25, 2013)
  9. 1 2 Women's Suffrage, Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society, November 2001 (accessed July 25, 2013)
  10. 1 2 3 Kansas State Capitol, Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society, 2004. (accessed July 25, 2013)
  11. 1 2 3 4 Bader, Robert Smith. Prohibition in Kansas: A History (1986)
  12. 1 2 3 4 Cool Things - Legislative War Artifacts, Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society, November 1997. (accessed July 25, 2013)
  13. ↑ Children in Kansas - 1890s-1920s, Kansapedia (accessed July 25, 2013)
  14. ↑ Robert Sherman La Forte, Leaders of reform: progressive Republicans in Kansas, 1900-1916 (University Press of Kansas, 1974)
  15. ↑ Sloan, Jr., Charles William (Fall 1974). "Kansas Battles the Invisible Empire: The Legal Ouster of the KKK From Kansas, 1922–1927". Kansas Historical Quarterly . 40 (3): 393–409. Archived from the original on October 19, 2003.
  16. ↑ "Kansas Legislative Research Manual Kansas Legislative Procedures," March 12, 2009.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Legislative Procedure in Kansas, Kansas Legislative Research Department, November 2006. (accessed July 24, 2013)


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.