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Kansas legislative committees worked rapidly throughout the session’s fourth week, holding more than 75 hearings as the ‘Turnaround’ week quickly approaches on February 20. ‘Turnaround’ refers to the mid-point of the session where most bills must be passed out of their house of origin for hearings to begin in the opposite chamber. A bill is subject to the ‘Turnaround’ deadline unless it is “blessed” by legislative leadership or resides in an exempt committee (Federal and State Affairs, Appropriations, Tax and Ways and Means). Lawmakers and advocates work to have their interests advanced...

Schools from around the state brought students to the statehouse this week to celebrate Kansas Day as lawmakers scrambled against the clock to get their bills introduced in this truncated 2025 legislative session. Social issues including gender affirming care dominated the headlines this week. Meanwhile, the first major piece of property tax legislation cleared the Senate chamber eliminating the state’s 1.5 mill property tax levy. With the legislature’s, “Turnaround,” scheduled for Feb. 20, a date by which all non-exempt bills must be passed out of their house of origin, committee chairs...

Following Monday’s holiday, lawmakers took advantage of the short work week and quickly introduced a flurry of bills ahead of the Jan. 27 deadline concluding the window for individual bill drafts. In all, nearly 170 pieces of legislation have been introduced in the 2025 Kansas legislative session, with many more ideas still in the drafting queue. The House of Representatives passed its resolution of the joint rules for the 2025-2026 biennium to the Senate for consideration, however, most of the heavy-lifting was conducted in committees during the legislature’s second week in...

As your eyes and ears at the capitol, we were in attendance to welcome legislators into the new biennium on your behalf on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. Following the election in November, where all 125 House of Representatives seats and 40 Senate seats were open, more than 30 new lawmakers were sworn in to represent their districts’ interests. Governor Laura Kelly delivered the annual State of the State address on Wednesday where she focused on economic development initiatives, a new strategic plan to conserve water and her disagreement toward republican leadership’s...

The selection committee for the Tomorrow’s Agribusiness Leaders (TAL) program met in early-December to review applications and select five members of the Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association and five members of the Kansas Grain and Feed Association to comprise the 27th class of agribusiness’ premier leadership development course. The selection committee of TAL alumni chose: Justin Aude (Frontier Farm Credit); Byron Bina (MKC); Bryant Blank (Lockton Companies); Jordan Burris (Cornerstone Ag, LLC); Casey Carlson (Producer Ag, LLC); Courtney Crawford (ProValue Insurance); Jeff Krehbiel (Kanza Cooperative Association); John O'Leary (Pride Ag Resources); Sarah...

Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) has joined a letter of support addressed to the United States Senate Agriculture Committee leadership supporting Brooke Rollins nomination as the 33rd Secretary of Agriculture. The letter, signed by more than 20 national and state agribusiness organizations, urged the committee and United States senate in its entirety to promptly confirm Rollins as the next United States Dept. of Agriculture secretary due to the many difficulties facing the country's farmers and rural America. The organizations representing farmers, ranchers, hunters, forest owners, conservationists, cooperatives, state departments of agriculture...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a final order terminating all food uses, except for 11 crops in specified states, for six Drexel and three Loveland chlorpyrifos products. The Drexel products include Drexel Chlorpyrifos 15G (Reg. No. 19713-505), Drexel Chlorpyrifos 4E-AG (Reg. No. 19713-520), Drexel Chlorpyrifos 15GR (Reg. No. 19713-521), Drexel Chlorpyrifos Technical (Reg. No. 19713-573), Drexel Chlorpyrifos 4E-AG2 (Reg. No. 19713-599), and Drexel Lambdafos Insecticide (Reg. No. 19713-671). The Loveland products include Warhawk (Reg. No. 34704-857), Warhawk Clearform (Reg. No. 34704-1077), and Match-Up Insecticide (Reg. No. 34704-1086). EPA is also...

On Thursday, December 12, 2024, Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) participated in the Kansas Dept. of Agriculture’s (KDA) Plant Protection and Weed Control Program stakeholder meeting to discuss proposed changes to the noxious weed list in agency regulations. The proposed changes, in the document available via the link below, were recommended to KDA Secretary Mike Beam by the Noxious Weed Advisory Board. KARA maintains a seat on the Noxious Weed Advisory Board. There were about a dozen attendees to the stakeholder meeting. The proposed regulation changes will remove pignut from the state...

2024 Election Report The 2024 election was full of surprises. Below is an initial overview. Mail in ballots will continue to be counted until Friday, meaning a couple of close races may still change. The final votes will be certified sometime next week. All unofficial election results can be found on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website. President of the United States Former president Donald Trump won 57 percent of the vote in Kansas, roughly the same as in 2016 and 2020. United States Congress District 1: Incumbent Republican Tracey Mann won reelection in the...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing an amendment to the existing stocks provisions for the Kaizen Technologies LLC (Kaizen) chlorpyrifos end-use product “Bifenchlor” to allow for sale, distribution, and use for a limited time. The 2023 court decision vacating the 2021 chlorpyrifos tolerance revocation rule reinstated tolerances for products that registrants had previously voluntarily cancelled. Granting this amendment ensures greater consistency across chlorpyrifos products. Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide that has been used for many food crops, including growing soybeans, fruit and nut trees, broccoli, cauliflower, and other row...

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