Republicans are likely to approve a state budget for Kansas that would force the state’s Democratic governor to limit diversity efforts on college campuses and help Texas in its fight with the Biden administration over border security. It contains provisions aimed at this purpose.
Republican negotiators in the state House and Senate agreed to include those items in a single bill that includes most of Kansas’ $25 billion in spending for the 2025 budget year, which begins July 1. Top Republicans in the Republican-controlled Congress are hoping for an agreement between both chambers. They are expected to vote on the final version of the bill this week.
“This is an opportunity to make a point,” state Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, said Wednesday. “The power of the wallet, that’s all we have. That’s our main power.”
Get the latest immigration news here
The Kansas House and Senate approved resolutions this year expressing support for Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to implement a law that would allow the arrest of immigrants suspected of entering the state illegally. The Biden administration maintains that immigration policy is determined solely by the federal government.
But Kansas Senate Republicans later added $15.7 million to the next state budget and directed Gov. Laura Kelly to provide Kansas National Guard resources to Texas.
Republican senators also called for state university presidents to appear before Kelly and legislative leaders to require prospective students, job applicants and employees seeking promotions to submit statements supporting diversity and equity. It also included a clause that would withhold funding from state universities totaling $35.7 million unless the government certifies that the state is not doing so. You can also discuss your commitment to inclusion and your past experiences with it. Republican budget negotiators agreed to keep these provisions in place unless another bill banning the practice is passed.
With security at the southern border becoming a major political issue ahead of the November presidential election, Border Patrol agents are investigating asylum-seeking migrants after they entered California from Mexico on February 2, 2024. Applicants were asked to line up. Republicans in the Kansas Senate have added $15.7 million to the next state budget and directed Gov. Laura Kelly to provide Kansas National Guard resources to Texas. Governor Kelly can still veto the provision. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
The state constitution gives Kelly the power to veto individual budget provisions, but immigration and anti-DEI forces hold the two-thirds majority in both chambers needed to override the veto. It is not clear whether there are. But if Kelly vetoes the anti-DEI provision, $35.7 million would be attached to it.
“This is like intimidation,” said Democratic Rep. Tom Sawyer of Wichita.
Republicans in at least 20 states are trying to limit DEI efforts, arguing that they are discriminatory and enforce liberal political orthodoxy. Alabama and Utah enacted new anti-DEI laws this year.
Last month, the Kansas House of Representatives approved a bill that would prohibit universities, community colleges, and technical schools from making student admissions, employee hiring, or promotion decisions based on statements or commitments about DEI or “political ideologies or movements.” did. Republicans hope both chambers will vote on the new bill this week.
But the Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s higher education system, has already responded to Republican lawmakers’ concerns. In April, the board will consider a proposed policy change that would ban requirements for “a statement of allegiance to, support for, or opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion” for admissions and employment.
“I really don’t think it’s going to be an issue. I think states will change their policies,” said state Rep. Kyle Hoffman, a Republican from western Kansas and the House budget negotiator.
Republicans are interested in border security because former President Donald Trump has stepped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric as he seeks re-election, often spreading falsehoods about immigration. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in March found that about two-thirds of Americans disapproved of President Joe Biden’s handling of border security.
Republican officials in many states also say the problem is stemming the flow of the dangerous opioid fentanyl across the Mexico-U.S. border, but experts say reducing demand for fentanyl in the U.S. is key. I agree with that.
“We need to stop it,” said state Sen. J.R. Clayes, a central Kansas Republican and budget negotiator. “Obviously the Biden administration is not going to do that, so we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”
But state Rep. Susan Lewis, a Kansas City-area Democrat, said the problems at the border demonstrate the need for domestic immigration reform, and that more immigrants than immigrant families seeking a better life in the U.S. They argued that Americans were more likely to smuggle fentanyl.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“They try to blame everything on immigrants and immigrants,” she says.
Some Republicans expect Mr. Kelly to veto the provision. Last month, she told reporters that the state constitution makes her the commander-in-chief of the Guard, and she is the one who decides how the Guard’s resources are used.
But Claeys responded: “There are other ways to leverage the budget to make things happen, so we’re going to continue to leverage those and the power of the wallet.”
