(March 23, 2023) – Today, the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, chaired by Stephen Owens (R-Hesston), worked to add bills to packages.

The committee began by working Senate Bill 174. The legislation increases the crime of interference with law enforcement when fleeing from an officer.

Next, the committee moved the contents of House Bill 2023. The legislation increases crimes against health care workers into the contents of Senate Bill 174. The committee also added the following to Senate Bill 174:

• House Bill 2398 adds the placing of controlled substances into pills into the definition of manufacture, increasing the criminal penalties for manufacturing fentanyl and creating a special sentencing rule to make sentences for distributing fentanyl presumptive imprisonment.
• Senate Bill 73 adds domestic battery and violation of a protection order to the crimes that a person can have the intent to commit when committing burglary or aggravated burglary.
• Senate Bill 244 authorizes the attorney general to prosecute any crime that is part of an alleged course of criminal conduct that occurres in two or more counties. The committee saw an attempted amendment brought to the proposals that was voted down on party lines in the committee, signaling many Democrats will not support the legislation.

The committee recommended the amended bill with all contents described above be recommended favorably for passage.