Kansas House Bill HB2360

Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/7/25
• Refer: 2/7/25

Caption

Directing the secretary for children and families to review and compare data for public assistance program eligibility.

Summary

HB 2360 would require the Kansas secretary for children and families, working with the secretary of health and environment, to use more frequent and broader data matching to verify and monitor eligibility for food assistance and other public assistance programs, including Medicaid, child support services, and related benefits. The bill directs the agencies to enter into agreements with commercial payroll-data providers or, alternatively, present data-matching options to the Legislative Coordinating Council for approval. It also requires regular review of state and federal data sources that could indicate changes in eligibility, such as death records, employment and wage records, residency indicators, incarceration status, tax records, and lottery or gambling winnings. The bill further requires the secretary to review several federal databases on at least a monthly basis, including Social Security Administration records, the National Directory of New Hires, child support enforcement data, HUD payment and earnings information, and FBI fleeing-felon information. In addition, it would require the department to publish quarterly aggregate information on food-assistance fraud and noncompliance findings, including investigations, referrals for prosecution, improper payments, recoveries, and out-of-state EBT spending. The bill is aimed at improving ongoing eligibility verification, reducing improper payments, and identifying ineligible recipients more quickly.

Impact

HB 2360 would expand the administrative duties of the Department for Children and Families and the Department of Health and Environment by mandating continuous or periodic cross-checking of public assistance recipients against multiple state, federal, and commercial data sources. It would affect eligibility administration for food assistance, Medicaid, child support-related programs, and other public assistance programs by creating new verification and monitoring requirements, as well as new public reporting obligations. The bill does not directly change benefit levels or eligibility standards, but it would likely increase program oversight, data-sharing, and fraud detection activity under Kansas public assistance law.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and available context, the measure appears to be framed positively by its sponsors as an anti-fraud and program-integrity proposal. The committee designation and requested-by sponsorship suggest it was developed as part of a welfare reform agenda focused on tighter eligibility review and recovery of improper payments. No committee transcript or recorded vote information is available here, so there is no documented opposition or support beyond the bill’s enforcement-oriented structure.

Contention

The main points of contention are likely to be the breadth and intrusiveness of the required data matching, the use of commercial payroll-data providers, and the privacy implications of comparing recipients’ information across multiple state and federal databases. Another possible issue is the requirement to identify out-of-state EBT use and lottery or gambling winnings, which could raise concerns about administrative burden, accuracy, and treatment of elderly or disabled households. Supporters would likely emphasize fraud prevention, while critics may focus on data privacy, due process, and the risk of erroneous eligibility determinations.