Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, urges urges the House Elections Committee to endorse a bill that would require lawmakers and other elected officials to wait one year after leaving office before they could go to work as a lobbyist in Kansas.

Topeka ? Kansas lawmakers and many other state officials would be prohibited from becoming registered lobbyists in Kansas within one year after leaving public service, under a bill being considered in a House committee.

House Minority Leader Jim Ward, D-Wichita, who is also a candidate for governor this year, said the bill is intended to prevent public officials from unduly profiting from the influence they gained while serving in state government.

“What this bill does is basically slow the revolving door,” he told the House Elections Committee Monday.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, urges urges the House Elections Committee to endorse a bill that would require lawmakers and other elected officials to wait one year after leaving office before they could go to work as a lobbyist in Kansas.

“One of the most important components of being a public official is the networks you build and the trust you build with your former colleagues,” he said. “And too often, if you leave on a Friday as a public official and come back on Monday as a lobbyist, and you make calls to your old colleagues … sometimes it may be difficult to say no, or it may unfairly tip the balance for your advocacy.”

Currently, state law only prohibits lawmakers and other public officials from working as a lobbyist at the same time they are serving in government. There is no limit on how long they have to wait after leaving office before they can work as a lobbyist.

Some notable examples of lawmakers going directly into the lobbying business after leaving office are former Republican House Speakers Doug Mays, of Topeka, and Mike O’Neal, of Hutchinson.

In addition, former Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, of Palco, resigned his seat in the middle of a term in November 2015 and went to work immediately as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. And although he did not immediately begin lobbying the Kansas Legislature the next year, he did return in the 2017 session to lobby against bills to scale back the open-carry laws he had championed a few years earlier.

The bill that Ward has proposed, known as the “Kansas Integrity in Government Act,” would extend that ban for one year after leaving public service.

It would apply to lawmakers as well as certain statewide elected officials, including the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and insurance commissioner. As presently drafted, it would not apply to the state treasurer or attorney general, although Ward said he would not object to adding those individuals as well.

It would also apply to cabinet secretaries and the heads of other state agencies, as well as senior staff members of those agencies.

The bill would only prevent them from being paid for lobbying services. It would not prevent them from lobbying for free or from taking a nonlobbying job at a company or organization that does lobby state government.

It also would not prevent someone from going to work as a consultant to a state agency, even though Ward said those positions are sometimes “lobbyists by another name.”

Ward said the bill was modeled after similar legislation in 41 other states as well as the federal government.

During the hearing, several lawmakers asked questions about technical elements of the bill. But Rep. Kristey Williams, R-Augusta, questioned the fundamental fairness of the bill, saying it might unduly limit a former official’s ability to earn a living after leaving office.

She noted that many lawmakers serve only a few terms in the Legislature before moving on, and those junior lawmakers often don’t cultivate the kind of influence that more senior lawmakers build up over time.

“We make a huge sacrifice when we come up here, monetarily and in opportunity costs,” Williams said. “And when we do that, if you add this to it, will it make it more difficult for people to say yes to becoming a representative, or taking any position, because it curtails your opportunity to advance your professional career later?”

Ward, however, said it wasn’t his intent to prevent former public officials from ever lobbying.

“I’m just saying let it lay over. If you have the skills, you’ll be able to get the job anyway, but it’ll cool off those relationships so there’s no perceived or actual influence on a legislator,” Ward said. “After a year, things cool off fast in this building, and then it’s the merits of the case that control whether or not a bill is brought forward or amendments are carried.”

The committee took no action on the bill Monday. Committee Chairman Rep. Keith Esau, R-Olathe, who is running for secretary of state this year, said it may be at least two weeks before the panel has time to begin working on amendments to the bill and voting on whether to send it to the full House.