Commerce Committee adopts amendments and advances House Bill 3347 over objections

The Commerce Committee adopted several amendments to a house committee substitute for House Bill 3347 and voted 5–2 to advance the substitute as "due pass," after a short floor discussion during which Representative Manser said he would not support the bill.

The committee chair opened discussion and asked Representative Manser to proceed. Representative Manser said he would not support House Bill 3347 "for a number of reasons," singling out the bill's inclusion of a provision related to Kansas City and beverage restrictions. He argued that the provision amounted to preemption of local authority and said, "I do support when government is as close to the voter and citizen as it can be."

Following that comment, the chair distributed an amendment ending in .01h (described on the record as a preemption provision to allow certain sales in response to Kansas City's market). After explanation the committee adopted that amendment. The chair then presented an amendment ending in .02h to change the title to "political subdivisions," which members said could broaden the bill's scope; that amendment also passed. The chair moved to roll the adopted amendments into a new house committee substitute and the committee adopted the substitute.

On the final roll call to advance the house committee substitute, the clerk recorded five ayes and two noes, and the committee voted the house committee substitute for House Bill 3347 "due pass." The recorded opposition included Representative Manser, who earlier stated he would not support the bill because of the preemption language. No further floor debate or public testimony was recorded on the item; the committee then adjourned.

Representative Manser's objections on the record centered on the principle of local control; committee members who supported the amendments said the changes addressed scope and title concerns but did not elaborate further on policy impacts in the recorded discussion.