Supporters of H.B. 2450 vow to try again next session.

A Kansas bill that aims to help small, minority and women-owned businesses appears to be trapped in limbo—for this legislative session, at least.

The House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development held a 90-minute hearing on H.B. 2450 on Feb. 20, but took no votes and didn’t schedule any further action.

Because of the legislature’s schedule, the bill probably won’t go any further this session, Rep. Annie Tietze said. “This bill is essentially dead.”

The bill would create a Small, Minority, and Women-Owned Business Development Program inside the Department of Commerce. Among other things, it would set participation goals for those companies in government contracts, maintain a certification list and identify obstacles that hold those businesses back.

A coalition of groups has been pushing for a program like that for a few years, said Denise Farris, a local attorney who belongs to Women Impacting Public Policy and the National Association of Women Business Owners. She called H.B. 2450 “the best piece of legislation that we’ve submitted” and said they would try again next session.

Though nobody opposed the bill during the hearing, it might have been hurt by a report from the state budget director, who said H.B. 2450 would cost $418,000 per year and require the state to hire seven new full-time employees.
Supporters disputed that figure. They pointed to a similar program in the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, which was started without any extra staffing and at little cost.

Plus, H.B. 2450 wouldn’t impose any hard-and-fast quotas, supporters said. The bill contains several “escape clauses” so the state wouldn’t be forced to accept bids that were significantly higher than the project estimate.

There’s still a small chance that H.B. 2450 could become an amendment to another bill this session. Tietze said she and the bill’s other supporters would continue looking for an opportunity like that.

A Senate version of the bill, S.B. 268, was referred to committee, but hasn’t been given a hearing at this point.