Republicans ‘call the question’ on high-profile legislation, including anti-trans bill

TOPEKA — Republican leaders of the Kansas Legislature relied on an arsenal of parliamentary procedure that frustrated Democrats seething about a bill forcing transgender people to use public bathrooms and obtain driver’s licenses matching their sex assigned at birth.

A provocative manipulation of the legislative process, in terms of advancing the bill, was deployment of an opaque rule permitting any member of the House and Senate to terminate debate and immediately compel an up-or-down vote. The GOP’s partisan approach at the Capitol was especially irritating to Democrats accustomed to majority rule but eager to place their views into the record.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson, both crusaders against transgender rights, had already made certain the bill was abruptly assembled and a beneficiary of partisan shell games to hurry the legislation through the House and Senate. The veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was anticipated. Two-thirds majorities, composed exclusively of Republicans, waited in the wings to override the governor and redefine the rights of Kansans.

“The Democrats threw up a number of fantastical claims, but Republicans stood together for sanity. Quite frankly, it’s mind-boggling we even need to have these debates,” said Hawkins, a Wichita Republican.

During floor speeches on motions to override Kelly on Senate Bill 244, Republican Sen. Joe Claeys of Wichita and GOP Rep. Barb Wasinger of Hays grew impatient. They stood to invoke a procedural remedy grafted from Robert’s Rules of Order and Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure onto House Rule No. 2304 and Senate Rule No. 69.

Claeys listened to 40 seconds of Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes’ remarks in opposition to the bill before invoking the rule to end debate and force a vote. For Claeys, the process was as simple as picking up a microphone, interrupting Sykes and saying: “I’d like to call the question.” The Senate didn’t formally process Claeys’ request. After speeches by another Democrat and a Republican, the Senate pivoted directly to the override vote. The 31-9 margin the began the reversal of Kelly’s veto.

Wasinger was more tolerant of dissent. She waited 12 minutes before throwing the procedural flag. At that point, four House Democrats had criticized the bill. Wasinger’s intervention: “I make a motion of the previous question.” The House passed her motion before completing the override 87-37.

The shared objective of Claeys and Wasinger was to avoid protracted public clashes on the controversial transgender bill. In both chambers, Democrats said they felt violated when GOP lawmakers stifled debate on SB 244.

“I feel that it takes away my First Amendment rights,” said Rep. John Alcala, a Topeka Democrat. “I feel it takes away my right to equally represent people.”

The House and Senate rules have come under bipartisan fire in Kansas for mandating votes long before exhausting debate on the utility or precariousness of legislation. Some legislators expressed interest in a near-moratorium on the practice. Others thought the rule should be reserved for real emergencies rather than relied upon as a partisan convenience. Supporters of the rule said they were eager to avoid wasting time at the Capitol as senators or representatives ran through repetitious speeches.

Leadership perspectives

Sen. Tim Shallenburger, a Baxter Springs Republican serving as the Senate’s vice president, said there is almost no circumstance in which calling the question could be justified by the Legislature. He said it might be the “very last resort” if the House or Senate endured 12 hours or more of overt filibustering.

“People should have the opportunity to debate,” he said. “I don’t think we should be as concerned about having to sit there and miss dinner or lunch. I can’t imagine that I’d recommend to somebody to call the question.”

Shallenburger, a former Kansas House speaker and one-time chair of the Kansas Republican Party, said one of the more egregious illustrations of how calling the question undermined the legislative process occurred April 10, 2025. Masterson, the Andover Republican who serves as Senate president, offered what he described as a “global motion” to take a single vote on the override of 38 line-item budget vetoes that were issued by the Democratic governor.

When Democrats complained, Masterson said it would take too much time to acquiesce to their request to separate all the vetoes into smaller bundles.

“I would ask that we call the question,” Masterson, now a candidate for governor, said that day.

Shallenburger said he privately objected to Masterson’s request during a closed meeting of Senate Republicans. On the Senate floor, Shallenburger was the lone Republican to vote against the unprecedented megabundle of vetoes, which the Senate adopted 30-10. The House, however, chose to address about half of the line-item vetoes.

In final hours of the 2026 legislative session that ended early Saturday, Masterson sprang on the Senate his idea for a state constitutional amendment to limit local government property tax increases. Democratic Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, sought permission to pause Senate debate to allow time for drafting a revised ballot explanation more easily understood by voters. Masterson didn’t give Francisco a chance to present her alternative, arguing that “given the late hour” the Senate should get on with a vote on the constitutional amendment. The proposed change to the Constitution passed the Senate, but it was rejected by the House.

Kelly, a member of the Kansas Senate for 14 years before elected the state’s 48th governor, said she understood the impulse to invoke the rule when legislators engaged in “tedious and tiresome” rhetoric. She said the procedure shouldn’t be whipped out to inhibit the Legislature’s core function of discussing and debating issues.

“Sometimes I think it’s actually appropriate, if you’ve got somebody grandstanding and not really contributing to the process,” she said. “When it is used as a weapon to silence the minority, then I think it’s absolutely wrong.”

Former House Speaker Mike O’Neal, who served nearly three decades in the House as a Hutchinson Republican, and former House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat, battled each other in the Statehouse for years. In terms of calling the question, both were on the same page. They concluded the procedure ought to be used sparingly by the Legislature. They agreed partisanship could lead to overreliance on the parliamentary procedure.

“It should be used rarely, advisedly,” O’Neal said. “But there’s a reason it’s in the rules. You can’t have ad nauseam debate where everybody who’s available says essentially the same thing.”

Davis said he couldn’t recall a House member wielding the rule as a sword while he was a member of the House from 2003 to 2015.

“Sometimes, it’s time,” he said. “As long as it’s germane, you can bring any amendment on any bill. You can do that in committee and on the floor. In Washington, D.C., and other places, it doesn’t work that way. The problem we have is that sometimes, because we have this open process, it can go on and on and on.”

Debate on debates

Advocates of the procedure to end debate and force votes on legislation said one goal of the process was to increase legislative efficiency and respond appropriately during times of crisis.

Rep. Linda Featherston, D-Overland Park, said she invoked the rule during this year’s legislative session as the House Education Committee discussed a bill prohibiting students from using cellphones in school. She said the objective wasn’t to harm that bill. She was interested in preserving time during the meeting to accommodate testimony from sex-abuse victims for a bill requiring school teachers to receive training in the subject.

In 2020, Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Republican, called the question multiple times to quickly vote on legislation during the early months of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

That was surpassed by the spectacle of GOP Sen. Rob Olson calling the question on a three-year, $1.2 billion tax cut bill during a special legislative session in June 2024.

Olson wasn’t seeking reelection and was asked by a peer to offer the motion because he could do it without political backlash. Olson said he was aware the motion, if passed, would prevent senators from putting forward amendments — possibly as many as 20. He said he was anxious that any changes could jeopardize the painstakingly negotiated Senate Bill 1. His call was affirmed 22-16 by the Senate, and the bill passed the chamber 34-4. The House concurred on the bill, and it was signed by the governor.

“I could have come here with 10 amendments and flooded the process, but it’s time to move forward,” Olson said.

Opponents of call-the-question rules say the procedure resulted in less-thoughtful consideration of complex issues and promoted adoption of poorly considered law. Critics said railroading legislation through the process encouraged political polarization and reduced the incentive to seek compromise.

Skeptics said the rule weakened government transparency by shielding from public view the range of arguments for or against a bill, amendment or, in the case of SB 244, a veto override.

Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat originally elected to the House as a Republican, said turning procedural screws in ways that undercut representative democracy meant that legislators were disempowered.

Make no mistake, she said, legislators who defended calling the question understood they were disenfranchising voters. The GOP majority in the Legislature offered a false narrative that it was necessary to place expediency over substance, she said.

“They were being lazy and didn’t want to do their jobs and be accountable to the people,” Sawyer Clayton said. “We should be allowed to dissent. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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