Kansas Legislature wraps another session of anti-transparency

With a one-party majority and a bag of legislative tricks, Kansas lawmakers conceal much of their bill-making process.
A recent article in the Kansas Reflector detailed methods used in the Kansas Capitol to move legislation through both chambers withot a great deal of transparency.

These maneuvers include a tactic called "gut and go" that makes it difficult to track a bill's progress, scheduling hearings with little advance notice, and refusing to reveal who has been invited to address committees.

There are rules for the Kansas House and Senate, but as Tim Carpenter, senior reporter for the Kansas Reflector, points out, "when you get down to it, if you have enough votes you can just abandon all those rules. With enough votes you can do anything you want in the legislature."