Summary — HB 2287 (2025): Changes to Public Assistance Eligibility and Program Rules (Kansas)
Status & procedural timeline
- Introduced: January 30, 2025; referred to Committee on Welfare Reform (Feb 6, 2025). Public hearing held Apr 16, 2025 (left pending). Fiscal note assumes an effective date of July 1, 2025 for cost estimates.
- Statutory targets: amends K.S.A. 39-702 and K.S.A. 2024 Supp. 39-709 and repeals existing sections noted in the bill.
Purpose / intent
- To expand eligibility and remove several administrative and statutory restrictions on state-administered public assistance programs (primarily Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — TANF — and food assistance), and to give the Secretary for Children and Families broader discretion in applying categorical eligibility and program expansions (including medical assistance).
Key provisions (major substantive changes)
- TANF time limits and hardship
- Extends the TANF lifetime limit from the current 24 months (statutory language varies in documents) to 60 months.
- Provides for hardship extensions to be granted by the Secretary for Children and Families.
- Adjusts diversion/limit language elsewhere (references to 36, 42 months in the draft history).
- Work participation / exemptions
- Exempts parents providing primary care for a child under 12 months from work participation requirements (current statute limited exemption to under 3 months).
- Removes progressive periods of ineligibility/penalties for noncompliance with work requirements.
- Eliminates some statutory requirements to assign certain people to employment & training programs.
- Child Support Services (CSS)
- Removes the requirement to cooperate with Child Support Services as a condition of eligibility for certain assistance; removes penalties tied to noncooperation.
- Food assistance (SNAP) restrictions
- Eliminates statutory prohibitions preventing persons convicted of certain drug-related felonies from receiving food assistance; prohibits denial of food assistance solely because of a drug-related felony conviction.
- Removes requirements related to drug testing for food assistance eligibility.
- Administrative / program authority changes
- Removes statutory prohibition that prevented the Department (DCF) from implementing USDA broad-based categorical eligibility (i.e., permits DCF to apply broader categorical eligibility).
- Permits the Secretary to set categorical eligibility standards.
- Eliminates statutory limits that prohibited DCF from setting resource limits for food assistance higher than federal law.
- Removes requirement that legislative action be required to expand the Medical Assistance Program.
- Benefit-card/photo requirements
- Eliminates the requirement that recipients’ photographs be placed on benefits cards.
Who would be affected
- Current and prospective TANF recipients (extended lifetime benefits, expanded hardship protections, and work-exemption for new parents).
- Individuals with drug-related felony convictions seeking food assistance (would no longer be categorically excluded).
- Families needing child care and employment services tied to TANF eligibility.
- Kansas Department for Children and Families (administrative workload changes and new discretionary authority).
- Child Support Services (possible reduction in cooperation-driven collections; contract impacts).
- State budget/TANF-funded programs (impacted by shifts in TANF expenditures/reserves).
Fiscal impact (summary from Division of the Budget fiscal note)
- Effective date used for estimates: July 1, 2025.
- Projected average increase in TANF cash cases: ~522 additional cases per month in FY2026 and ~851 per month in FY2027 (average persons per case = 2.46).
- Projected additional TANF benefit costs (state estimate): approximately $1.73 million in FY2026 and $2.82 million in FY2027 (figures reflect monthly benefit projections aggregated).
- TANF Employment Services: estimated additional annual costs of about $294,060 (FY2026) and $478,920 (FY2027), assuming $65 per person per month and historical participation rates (~72% of TANF adults).
- Child Care Subsidy: projected monthly increases of ~59 cases in FY2026 and ~167 cases in FY2027 tied to expanded TANF rolls and removal of CSS cooperation requirement.
- Funding note: the fiscal note indicates these added costs could be covered with federal TANF funds, but doing so would draw down the state TANF reserve and likely require reductions in other TANF-funded grants or programs in future years.
Notable procedural/implementation points
- The bill grants greater administrative discretion (Secretary/DCF) to set categorical eligibility and resource standards and to implement medical assistance expansion without requiring separate legislative action — shifting some policy choices from statute to agency rulemaking/administration.
- Removing procedural eligibility conditions (photos on cards, CSS cooperation) would require operational changes at DCF and potentially updated notices and system changes.
Bottom line
HB 2287 makes broad changes that expand and liberalize eligibility for TANF and food assistance, remove certain compliance-based penalties, and increase administrative discretion for the Secretary/DCF. The fiscal note projects measurable increases in caseloads and program costs (fundable with TANF dollars in the near term) but warns that increased spending would reduce TANF reserves and could force reductions in other TANF-funded programs in future years.
