Kansas governor renews bid to merge two agencies a year after lawmakers rejected plan
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly will try once again to merge the state’s struggling child welfare agency with the state department that oversees state hospitals and long term care facilities.
Kelly announced Monday morning that she would seek to consolidate the state’s Department of Children and Family Services with the Department for Aging and Disability Services. The new agency, she said, would be the Department of Human Services.
“Creating the Department of Human Services ensures Kansas families and individuals have easier access to critical services and improves engagement between our service centers, clients, and local stakeholders by creating a single point of entry for those accessing a variety needs,” Governor Kelly said.
The agency would be created through an executive reorganization order effective on July 1 unless the House or Senate votes to block it within 60 days of its formal proposal on Jan. 21.
Last year, the House of Representatives blocked the measure.
Kelly’s spokeswoman, Lauren Fitzgerald, said the governor was once again seeking to merge the agencies because it’s “the right thing to do.”
In an email Senate President Ty Masterson’s spokesman, Mike Pirner, said Masterson was reviewing the proposal and would decide what to do at a later date.
Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Republican from Galena who chairs the public health and welfare committee, said that before deciding the issue he would need to know how the consolidation would improve conditions for children in the foster system and capacity issues at mental health hospitals.
After opposing the plan last year, Hilderbrand said he’d need to see “something that is verifiable that they have a plan in order to address all the issues that they have not just continuing on with the same old solutions for the same problems that don’t get fixed.”
If allowed to proceed with the consolidation, Kelly would name Laura Howard as secretary of the new agency. Howard currently oversees both agencies.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 10:44 AM.
