Kansas House Bill HB2519

Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/22/26
• Refer: 1/22/26
• Report Pass: 2/10/26
• Engrossed: 2/24/26
• Refer: 2/25/26
• Report Pass: 3/11/26
• Enrolled: 3/24/26
• Passed: 4/9/26

Caption

Continuing in existence certain exceptions to the disclosure of public records under the Kansas open records act.

Summary

HB 2519 is a Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) housekeeping and continuation bill that extends the life of several existing public-records exceptions that would otherwise expire under Kansas’s sunset-review process. The bill specifically continues confidentiality or limited-disclosure provisions for emergency contact information held by the Division of Vehicles, records of the state child death review board, certain insurance reinsurance filings and related materials, fulfillment-house alcohol shipment records, and documents used by the Kansas elder and dependent adult abuse multidisciplinary teams. It also updates the statutory list in K.S.A. 45-229 to reflect exceptions reviewed and continued through the 2026 legislative cycle. In addition to continuing those exceptions, the bill makes conforming amendments to the underlying statutes so the confidentiality provisions remain in force and, in some cases, are explicitly tied to the 2026 expiration/review date. The practical effect is to preserve existing limits on public access to sensitive records while leaving the broader KORA framework intact. The bill does not create a new records regime so much as it reauthorizes and preserves several targeted exemptions that support law enforcement, child welfare, elder abuse response, insurance regulation, and alcohol shipment oversight. The overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly favorable and largely noncontroversial. That is reflected in the voting history: the House passed the bill 120-2 and the Senate passed it 40-0 on the consent calendar. The absence of committee transcript discussion also suggests the measure was treated as a routine continuation bill rather than a contested policy change. The main point of contention inherent in the bill is the balance between transparency and confidentiality. The bill keeps records closed that some members of the public might otherwise want to inspect, especially insurance-related filings and sensitive investigative or personal information held by state agencies and multidisciplinary teams. However, the statutory framework in K.S.A. 45-229 already requires the legislature to justify exceptions based on sensitivity, administrative necessity, or confidentiality, and HB 2519 continues those exceptions without expanding them in a visibly controversial way.

Impact

HB 2519 preserves and extends multiple statutory exceptions to disclosure under the Kansas Open Records Act, meaning affected records remain exempt from public inspection unless another law allows disclosure. It directly affects statutes governing driver emergency contact records, child death review board records, reinsurance and trust-related insurance filings, fulfillment house alcohol shipment reports, and elder/dependent adult abuse team records. The bill also updates K.S.A. 45-229’s list of continued exceptions, ensuring these provisions remain operative through the next review cycle rather than expiring under the sunset law.

Sentiment

The bill’s reception was overwhelmingly positive and procedural rather than ideological. It passed the House by a wide margin and cleared the Senate unanimously on the consent calendar, indicating broad bipartisan support and little apparent opposition. The lack of recorded committee debate further suggests the bill was viewed as a routine continuation of existing confidentiality provisions rather than a major policy dispute.

Contention

The principal tension in HB 2519 is between open-government principles and the need to protect sensitive information. Potential critics could focus on the breadth of confidentiality for insurance regulatory materials, child death review records, and elder abuse multidisciplinary team records, arguing that such exceptions limit public oversight. Supporters, by contrast, would emphasize that the records involve personal, investigative, or commercially sensitive information and that the bill merely renews narrowly tailored exceptions already recognized in Kansas law. No specific factional or committee-level opposition is evident in the available record.