In the News
A new grant of more than $3.5 million was announced Wednesday to the University of Kansas Medical Center to support local projects to rapidly implement COVID-19 testing strategies in areas that are disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
According to the grant announcement, KU Medical Center will partner with community efforts in Wyandotte County as well as nine other Kansas counties for health equity action teams. They will work with local health departments.
The three Republicans and lone Democrat in Kansas' congressional delegation voted against the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus plan proposed by Democratic leadership and narrowly passed by the U.S. House.
GOP Reps. Ron Estes, Steve Watkins and Roger Marshall were joined by Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids in opposition to the relief bill with little chance of moving through the U.S. Senate or being signed by President Donald Trump.
It passed 214-207 in the House, and Davids was among 18 Democrats voting Thursday against the measure.
Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas was blunt: "Drastic" state budget reductions are on the table if Congress and the White House fail to agree on financial help for state and local governments.
"Unless we get some help from the federal government … we will see some pretty serious cuts," the Democrat told reporters Monday.
Despite the fast-paced 24-hour news cycle we all live in today, there are some stories that seem to remain untold. Among those stories exist the 506 Indigenous women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered — 95 percent of which were never covered by the national media, and whose circumstances and details remain largely unknown.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Rep. Sharice Davids of the Third Congressional District are both pushing for emergency relief for Kansas.
Kelly testified before the House Financial Services Committee on the need for federal relief for the Kansas state budget. Following the governor's testimony, Davids released a statement thanking the governor for "advocating on behalf of the needs of all Kansans today."
Today, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) and U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.), along with U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (Mo.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), and Pat Roberts (Kan.), and U.S. Representatives Sharice Davids (Kan.) and Sam Graves (Mo.), called for an immediate bipartisan briefing from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on the reduction of a contract, which has led to the furloughs of roughly 800 contract employees in the agency's Kansas City offices.
The U.S. House of Representatives today voted 257 to 150 to pass a $25 billion bill that would stop cuts to the U.S. Postal Service.
The bill prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to the operations or service levels in effect on Jan. 1, 2020; requires the Postal Service to treat all election mail as first-class mail; and provides $25 billion in emergency funding to the Postal Service. The bill next goes to the Senate for approval.
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids Thursday afternoon continued her discussion on the importance of the United States Postal Service. Earlier this week, Davids called for the the removal of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who she said has implemented policies predicted to delay USPS operations during the upcoming general election.
Kansas City area election officials and members of the Congressional delegation said Tuesday they are fielding lots of worried calls about the safety of mail-in voting, and they are trying to pro-actively address them prior to the November elections.
They voiced their concerns on the same day that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued a lengthy statement to reassure the public that proposed U.S. Postal Service changes will not adversely affect the elections.