All Roll Calls
Yes: 686 • No: 286
KansasHB 27312025–2026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET
Substitute for HB 2731 by Committee on Welfare Reform -Requiring the department of health and environment in coordination with the Kansas department for aging and disability services to seek federal approval to establish continuous medicaid eligibility for certain individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities who are receiving services through a home and community based services waiver, requiring the secretary for children and families and the secretary of health and environment to enter into data-matching agreements with state agencies to verify eligibility for food and medical assistance, directing the department of health and environment to submit certain data to the centers for medicare and medicaid services, prohibiting certain public assistance program waivers or exemptions without legislative approval, prohibiting self-attestation for purposes of determining eligibility for public assistance programs, limiting retroactive enrollment in the medical assistance program, increasing the age limit for able-bodied adults without certain dependents and prohibiting certain exemptions from work requirements under the food assistance program.
Sponsored By: Committee on Welfare Reform
Became Law
senate committee on government efficiencyhouse committee on welfare reform
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
19 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 13 costs, 4 mixed.
Medicaid coverage protections for disabled Kansans
Kansas must seek federal approval for continuous Medicaid eligibility for people with documented permanent intellectual or developmental disabilities. They must receive services through a home and community-based services waiver. Protections cannot start before federal approval; after approval, the agencies must put them in place. Eligibility continues unless income, assets, residency, or disability status has a verified change. Existing financial limits and federal oversight rules remain; the law does not expand eligibility groups.
Cooperation failures can stop family benefits
Failure to cooperate with cash-assistance work programs can stop an individual's food assistance for three months, six months, one year, or 10 years. That penalty does not automatically disqualify the whole household. Child-support noncooperation without good cause stops an individual's food assistance until cooperation resumes. Childcare penalties for child-support noncooperation are three months, six months, one year, then 10 years; the first three also require resumed cooperation. Childcare support compliance is checked at application, after 12 months of continuous eligibility, and at later renewals or reviews.
Fraud findings can end adult cash benefits
A qualifying fraud finding or theft conviction in cash assistance or childcare permanently disqualifies every adult in the household from cash assistance. A state-approved payee must manage affected children's cash or food benefits, and household adults cannot access the cash benefit. Refusing to cooperate with a fraud investigation bars cash assistance and childcare subsidies until Kansas determines cooperation has resumed. Kansas must keep enough fraud investigators to handle cases promptly; no staff count or separate funding amount is set.
Grocery benefit limits for mixed-status families
Food assistance is limited to U.S. citizens and noncitizens with qualifying status under federal agriculture rules. A noncitizen unable or unwilling to provide qualifying documents is excluded from the household size used to determine eligibility. That person's gross non-exempt income and assets still count in full for remaining household members. This can lower or end benefits for family members who otherwise qualify.
Three-month grocery benefit limit covers more adults
Covered able-bodied adults ages 18–64 face a three-month food assistance limit within each 36-month period. It applies when their household has no dependent under 14. They must work at least 20 hours weekly or meet an approved work-program requirement to avoid the limit. Kansas bars agencies from seeking or using federal waivers of this limit. It also bars exemptions for homeless people, veterans, and former foster youth age 24 or younger who meet the listed foster-care history.
Work and income rules for childcare help
For childcare subsidies outside cash assistance cases, included adults generally must work at least 20 hours weekly. Kansas also counts a live-in partner's income when deciding eligibility. Work exemptions cover documented incapacity, specified post-cash-assistance employment cases, and certain minor parents in school or GED programs. They also cover food assistance job training, qualifying Early Head Start partnerships, and caregivers for children in state custody placed outside home.
Work rules put grocery benefits at risk
Food assistance recipients without an exemption must register for work, join assigned job programs, and accept suitable job offers. They cannot voluntarily quit a job of at least 30 hours a week. Penalties last three months for a first violation, six months for a second, and one year for later violations. Ineligibility continues until they comply. Kansas must assign covered groups to employment and training, including certain work registrants ages 50–59 and people working under 30 hours weekly.
Drug convictions limit cash and groceries
A first qualifying felony drug conviction dated July 1, 2013, or later bars cash assistance for five years; later convictions permanently bar it. Covered crimes include making, growing, distributing, possessing, or using controlled substances or similar drugs. Qualifying felony drug offenses from July 1, 2015, also restrict food assistance, with permanent disqualification for possession or use. Some first-time offenders can regain food eligibility through approved treatment, a passed drug test, and agreement to future requested tests. That route requires completing treatment and passing required tests, and is unavailable after a second qualifying conviction.
Drug tests put cash benefits at risk
Kansas can drug-test cash assistance applicants and recipients when reasonable suspicion of unlawful drug use exists. Positive tests require approved treatment and job-skills programs; failure to participate bars aid until both are completed. A recipient's second positive ends aid for 12 months or until both programs are completed, whichever is later. A third positive ends aid, subject to federal law; a protective payee can receive a child's aid but loses that role after testing positive. People pay for an extra test at another facility and receive reimbursement if it is negative.
Medicaid asset limits and trust protections
Medicaid applicants must live in Kansas, meet citizenship or lawful-admission rules, and stay within state income and asset limits. Inheritances count as assets, and refusing an inheritance counts as an asset transfer. For eligibility decisions from July 1, 2004, certain restricted joint-ownership interests below 100% make the property's full value count. Trust money generally counts to the extent a trustee can make it available. Qualifying supplemental trusts and principal and interest in specified irrevocable trusts receive protection.
Student parents get limited childcare help
Parents pursuing a college degree or certificate can qualify for childcare help while working at least 15 paid hours weekly. Their occupation must have at least an average federal job outlook, unless the secretary approves a lower-outlook plan. A verified job offer available after completion also provides a qualifying route. Education-based help is capped at 24 lifetime months per adult, which need not be consecutive. In two-parent households, only one parent can use this route at once; the other must qualify on another basis.
Benefit checks track wages and winnings
Kansas agencies must match state records for people applying for or receiving food or medical assistance. Checks occur at least monthly for vital records, possible residency changes, corrections records, and lottery or gambling winnings of $3,000 or more. Employment and wage checks occur quarterly. Separate lottery reporting for cash, food, and childcare recipients drops from prizes over $5,000 to prizes over $3,000; use is limited to eligibility checks. Federal law controls whether winnings are verified on receipt or investigated when they reach the elderly or disabled household resource limit.
Families transfer support rights to Kansas
Applying for or receiving cash, food, or childcare assistance automatically transfers covered past, current, and future support rights to Kansas. No separate signature is needed; the state can handle support payments, and the transfer lasts until fully ended. Applicants and recipients must cooperate with support services; mothers seeking cash assistance must identify the father unless undue hardship applies. Children's support rights also transfer when Kansas takes custody or pays care and custody costs. Existing support orders also transfer when custody passes to an aided caretaker relative.
Shorter backdated Medicaid coverage for applicants
For applications made on or after January 1, 2027, backdated Medicaid enrollment is limited to two months before the application month. Applicants may have to pay medical bills from earlier months, even for otherwise eligible care.
Stricter checks before families receive benefits
Kansas generally cannot accept unverified self-reports before enrollment in cash, food, medical, or childcare assistance, unless federal law requires acceptance. Covered facts include income, residency, age, household makeup, caretaker-relative status, and other coverage. Agencies cannot seek permission to skip regular checks of available income records. Kansas must electronically check benefit applications for false information and verify every adult's identity in cash, food, and childcare cases. Food or medical assistance notices cannot precede disenrollment by more than 30 days after an ineligibility or noncompliance finding.
Optional benefits-card photos provide voter identification
Kansas must add a recipient's photo to a benefits card when the recipient agrees. For a minor or incapacitated recipient, a parent or legal guardian can place their own photo on the card. A benefits card bearing a photo is valid public assistance identification for voting.
Kansas bars paid grocery benefit ads
Kansas agencies cannot use state or federal money for television, radio, or billboard ads promoting food assistance or enrollment. They also cannot enter agreements with foreign governments to promote food assistance. These restrictions govern outreach spending, not benefit amounts or eligibility.
Lawmakers control benefit waivers and expansion
Kansas cannot expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act without approval through a state law. Beginning July 1, 2026, agencies also need legislative approval for optional public assistance exemptions, geographic waivers, and work-rule waivers. These limits restrict agency authority rather than create a new reporting duty for recipients.
Medicaid checks target duplicate and deceased enrollment
Beginning January 1, 2027, Kansas must send Medicaid enrollment data to federal officials monthly to identify and remove multistate enrollment. Address information must come from listed reliable sources or another federally approved source. Kansas must also check every enrollee against a death master file quarterly and end enrollment immediately after confirming death. These are agency duties, not new household reporting requirements.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Committee on Welfare Reform
Affiliation unavailable
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 28 Nay: 11
Yes: 28 • No: 11
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 80 Nay: 43
Yes: 80 • No: 43
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 85 Nay: 37
Yes: 85 • No: 37
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 37 Nay: 3
Yes: 37 • No: 3
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 29 Nay: 10
Yes: 29 • No: 10
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 84 Nay: 39
Yes: 84 • No: 39
Senate vote • 4/10/2026
Motion to override veto prevailed
Yes: 29 • No: 10
House vote • 4/10/2026
Motion to override veto prevailed
Yes: 84 • No: 39
House vote • 3/27/2026
Conference Committee Report was adopted
Yes: 80 • No: 43
Senate vote • 3/27/2026
Conference Committee Report was adopted
Yes: 28 • No: 11
Senate vote • 3/19/2026
Final Action - Passed as amended
Yes: 37 • No: 3
House vote • 2/19/2026
Final Action - Substitute passed
Yes: 85 • No: 37
Actions Timeline
Motion to override veto prevailed; Yea 84, Nay 39, Absent 2
4/10/2026HouseMotion to override veto prevailed; Yea 29, Nay 10, Absent 1
4/10/2026SenateEnrolled and presented to Governor on Monday, March 30, 2026
4/9/2026HouseEngrossed on Saturday, March 28, 2026
4/9/2026HouseVetoed by Governor; Returned to House on Wednesday, April 8, 2026
4/9/2026HouseConference committee report now available
3/27/2026SenateConference Committee Report was adopted; Yea 28, Nay 11, Absent 1
3/27/2026SenateConference Committee Report was adopted; Yea 80, Nay 43, Absent 2
3/27/2026HouseConference Committee Report agree to disagree adopted; Sen. Renee Erickson, Sen. Michael Murphy and Sen. Cindy Holscher appointed as second conferees
3/25/2026SenateConference Committee Report agree to disagree adopted; Rep. Francis Awerkamp, Rep. Dale Helwig and Rep. Suzanne Wikle appointed as second conferees
3/25/2026HouseMotion to accede adopted; Sen. Renee Erickson, Sen. Michael Murphy and Sen. Cindy Holscher appointed as conferees
3/24/2026SenateRep. Blake Carpenter and Rep. Suzanne Wikle are appointed to replace Rep. Francis Awerkamp and Rep. Jarrod Ousley on the Conference Committee
3/24/2026HouseRep. Francis Awerkamp is appointed to replace Rep. Blake Carpenter on the Conference Committee
3/24/2026HouseNonconcurred with amendments; Conference Committee requested; appointed Rep. Francis Awerkamp, Rep. Dale Helwig and Rep. Jarrod Ousley
3/23/2026HouseFinal Action - Passed as amended; Yea 37, Nay 3
3/19/2026SenateCommittee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Sen. Adam Thomas
3/18/2026SenateCommittee of the Whole - Amendment by Sen. Adam Thomas was adopted
3/18/2026SenateCommittee of the Whole - Be passed as amended
3/18/2026SenateCommittee Report recommending bill be passed by Senate Committee on Government Efficiency
3/10/2026SenateHearing: Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 9:30 AM — Room 144-S
3/3/2026SenateReferred to Senate Committee on Government Efficiency
2/25/2026SenateReceived and Introduced
2/24/2026SenateFinal Action - Substitute passed; Yea 85, Nay 37, Absent 3
2/19/2026HouseCommittee of the Whole - Committee Report be adopted recommending substitute bill be passed
2/18/2026HouseCommittee of the Whole - Substitute bill be passed
2/18/2026House
Bill Text
As Introduced
Enrolled
Sub
{As Amended by Senate Committee of the Whole}
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