KSNO supports voting no on HCR 5014 the constitutional amendment titled "The Legislative Veto or Suspension of Executive Agency Regulations Amendment". This amendment could take power away from KDHE and KSDE in deciding which vaccines should be mandatory for schools and gives that power to the legislature. Here is a good explainer of this amendment and how it takes power away from professionals in legislative agencies and gives it to elected officials in the legislature. Constitutional Amendment Explainer - The Voter Network
2 highlights from the explainer link:
Current Practice:
"Currently, executive agencies, like the state health department or state department of education (for example), can independently establish rules and regulations to guide the work of their departments. These regulations are developed by agency experts and go through a multi-stage vetting process, including public hearings, before they are adopted. Fun fact: There are more than 30,000 regulations on the books in Kansas. 😱
Under our current Kansas Constitution, the Kansas Legislature CAN pass a bill to make changes regarding executive agencies and their regulations. This process guarantees a separation of powers."
How the amendment changes things:
"If passed, this amendment would give more power to the Kansas Legislature, effectively allowing them to overturn any executive agency policies.
For example, the Kansas Department of Health and Human Services leads the state pandemic policy. The Kansas Department of Education sets standards for curriculum. These regulations, and even smaller ones, like which athletic division a school is in, would be in the hands of state legislators instead of experts.
Kansas lawmakers would no longer have to craft thoughtful legislation to enact changes but could sidestep agency rules they disagreed with by a simple majority vote. This would not only negate the power of the Governor's office but also of long-time civil servants."