Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas House Bill HB2342

Introduced
2/7/25  
Refer
2/7/25  
Report Pass
2/18/25  
Engrossed
2/25/25  
Refer
2/26/25  
Report Pass
3/13/25  
Enrolled
4/10/25  

Caption

Authorizing the attorney general and the state gaming agency to receive certain additional criminal history records, updating criminal history record language related to the state bank commissioner, requiring the secretary of labor to conduct criminal history record checks on employees who have access to federal tax information and authorizing the secretary of commerce to conduct such checks on final applicants for and employees in certain sensitive positions.

Summary

HB2342 expands and clarifies when Kansas agencies may obtain state and national criminal history record checks for licensing, employment, and regulatory oversight. The bill authorizes the secretary of commerce to run criminal history checks on final applicants for, and employees in, designated sensitive positions at the Department of Commerce, and it sets a minimum disqualification standard for those positions involving certain theft, fraud, forgery, or felony convictions. It also requires the secretary of labor to fingerprint and check employees who will have access to federal tax information received directly from the IRS. The bill also updates the Kansas money transmission act and related banking statutes to align criminal history screening and information-sharing provisions with current practice. It expands the state bank commissioner’s authority to receive criminal history records for applicants in control of a money transmitter licensee, licensees, key individuals, and other regulated financial-sector applicants, and it revises definitions and procedures for money transmission oversight. In addition, it amends the criminal history record check statute to add the state gaming agency and the secretary of commerce to the list of agencies that may receive broader criminal history information for specified employment and licensing decisions, while preserving confidentiality and limiting use to official determinations of fitness and qualifications.

Impact

The bill amends K.S.A. 75-5702 and K.S.A. 2024 Supp. 9-555, 9-565, 9-2411, 22-4714 and 75-7b01, and repeals the prior versions of those sections. Its practical effect is to broaden access to criminal history record information for several Kansas agencies, especially the Department of Commerce, Department of Labor, state bank commissioner, attorney general, and state gaming agency, and to authorize or require fingerprint-based checks in additional employment and licensing contexts. It also strengthens confidentiality rules for the records obtained and makes unauthorized disclosure or use a misdemeanor in certain instances. The bill takes effect upon publication in the Kansas register, with several provisions set to operate beginning January 1, 2025, and some confidentiality provisions subject to sunset review in 2029.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the Legislature. It passed the House 123-0, the Senate 39-1, and both chambers later adopted the conference committee report unanimously or nearly unanimously. The vote pattern suggests strong bipartisan agreement on the need to update background-check authority and align criminal history access with agency oversight responsibilities.

Contention

There is little evidence of major policy conflict in the available record, but the main substantive issue is the expansion of criminal history access and confidentiality restrictions. Potential points of concern include the breadth of records that may be shared with regulators, the use of criminal history information in employment decisions for sensitive positions, and the limits on public access to those records under the open records act. The bill also creates a narrow minimum standard for Commerce sensitive positions, which may have prompted discussion about balancing workforce access with fraud-prevention and financial integrity, though no committee transcript is available here showing active opposition.

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS SB5

Authorizing counties to impose an earnings tax.

KS HB2004

Authorizing counties to propose an earnings tax for ballot question.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS SB8

Exempting the sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition, firearm safes and firearm safety devices from the retatilers' sales tax.

KS SB3

Clarifying the procedures and restrictions on accepting a nomination for an elected office.

KS SCR1601

Informing the Governor that the two houses of the Legislature are organized and ready to receive communications.

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