Secretary of State Scott Schwab Announces 2024 Legislative Agenda

Monday, January 8, 2024

TOPEKA – Today, Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced his 2024 legislative agenda to modernize and streamline the state’s rules and regulations process, eliminate unnecessary business filing requirements, and reduce taxpayer waste by updating publications statutes.

The Secretary of State’s legislative agenda includes:

Modernize Regulation-Making Process: Kansas has conducted the rules and regulations approval process by paper since 1965. Secretary Schwab has launched an initiative to modernize and improve the efficiency of the regulation-making process for all state agencies, boards, and commissions.

“Completion of this initiative will improve state government by cutting the regulatory development burden, reducing costs, and streamlining the process through digital submissions and improved agency collaboration,” Schwab said.

Business Filing Improvements: The Secretary of State’s office is proposing legislation that will continue to improve customer service by simplifying business filings and eliminating unnecessary filing requirements.

“Throughout my administration I have been focused on reducing red tape for Kansas businesses and this legislation is another step to help meet that objective,” Schwab said.

Update Publications Statutes: To improve efficiency and save taxpayer dollars, the office is proposing a bill that will provide legislators the option to access updated laws online rather than receiving physical copies of state lawbooks. The bill will enable legislators to receive new state law volumes and supplements on request rather than receiving the publications automatically.

“I hope legislators find this update beneficial for their work and for Kansas taxpayers,” Schwab said.

Also, the agency plans to complete the transition to all-electronic publication for Kansas regulations by amending or repealing a handful of statutes that still provide for publishing paper volumes and supplements.

Additionally, as county election officials prepare to conduct three elections this year, Secretary Schwab noted that the office has worked with the Kansas Legislature over the past few years to modernize and improve election laws in preparation for the 2024 elections. To continue to defend the system, more than 100 election laws have been updated, repealed, or enacted since 2021 to provide voters transparency, security, and accountability in the state’s election system.

###