TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers plan to consider revised legislation expanding the ways workers can opt out of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and punishing businesses that question their beliefs.
The House will consider the bill when it convenes a special session Monday morning. The Senate is expected to consider a version of the bill that also provides unemployment benefits for individuals who don’t want to get vaccinated from the deadly disease.
GOP leaders have prepared last-minute updates to the proposed exemptions first outlined during meetings of a special overreach committee. The latest version would allow employees to claim an exemption on moral grounds, in addition to medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs.
Businesses are not allowed to question employees about the exemptions. Employees can file a grievance with the Kansas Department of Labor if they are denied an exemption or alleging retaliation. The agency is required to investigate those complaints and turn over findings to the attorney general, who can then file action in civil court. Small businesses face a fine up to $10,000 for each violation. For businesses with more than 100 employees, the fine can be as high as $50,000.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman advised House Republicans to avoid the temptation to add provisions to the bill that sound good — a reference to anti-vaxers who are unhappy the legislation isn’t more extreme — and embrace the court-tested language already in the bill.
“This is about federal mandates, not about if a vaccine works or doesn’t work,” Ryckman told reporters Sunday night. “This is about the federal government inserting themselves between someone’s health and their job.”
The House strategy is to secure the exemptions so that a broader bill providing for unemployment benefits is unnecessary. The Senate, however, could force a conference on the issue.
In a meeting Monday morning of House Republicans, several representatives raised concerns about extending exemptions on the basis of “non-theistic moral and ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong.” Others raised concerns about the prohibition on inquiring about the validity of religious beliefs.
“A lot of people are going to find Jesus, and I think that’s fantastic,” said Rep. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican who defended the bill.
Rep. Jim Kelly, an Independence Republican, wondered if he could claim an exemption just because his dog is Catholic and doesn’t like shots.
“I mean, is that kind of how it is?” he said.
“I haven’t met a Catholic dog before. I suppose they exist,” Owens said. “Again, it goes back to the question: Who is someone else to decide what my sincerely held religious beliefs are?”
Rep. John Eplee, an Atchison Republican and family physician, said he was concerned the language in the bill eventually could be inserted into state law regarding vaccine requirements for school children.
“It’s a philosophical exemption clothed in a religious exemption,” Eplee said.
For now, the bill only applies to COVID-19 vaccines required by employers.
The special session is a response to a series of federal mandates. A federal court already has suspended a lawsuit requiring employees of large businesses to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and wear a mask at work. Another mandate applies to employees of Medicaid and Medicare providers, including long-term care facilities. The federal government also requires its own employees to be vaccinated, a requirement which extends to federal contractors.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican who is running for governor in next year’s election, told House Republicans in a meeting Sunday night that the best recourse for Kansas employees are the lawsuits he has joined to challenge the federal mandates.
“The one thing I can say with confidence is that if we succeed in these three lawsuits, that is the best and most certain way to ensure that those three federal mandates … do not have legal effect in Kansas and therefore avoids all the types of questions,” Schmidt said.
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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Special session offers hint of what awaits Kansas lawmakers in 2022 legislative session
Expect the Legislature to grapple with an assortment of coronavirus bills, including one taking away authority of private businesses to mandate employees get a COVID-19 vaccination. Another proposal would add COVID-19 vaccination status to the list of prohibited forms of employment discrimination along with race, religion, color, sex, disability, ancestry, national origin and age.
