Topeka ? A measure that would allow Sunday alcohol sales has made it past its first hurdle and now heads to a full Senate, which deadlocked last year on the issue.

The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee approved the bill Tuesday. It would allow liquor stores to sell alcohol from noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays and let grocery and convenience stores sell so-called “weak beer,” or cereal malt beverages, during the same hours.

The House approved a similar measure last year, but it was defeated in the Senate on a 20-20 vote. The Senate is expected to take up the bill again next week, where it needs at least 21 votes to pass.

Two Kansas counties and 23 cities have adopted ordinances allowing Sunday sales since a loophole was found two years ago that let them opt out of state liquor laws and approve their own. In some communities where the ordinances were challenged, the issue was put to a public vote.

The bill would close the loophole and require municipalities that have Sunday sales to adopt new ordinances, a feature that some on the panel said was not necessary.

“It would undo what most communities already have voted on,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

Hensley predicted an amendment likely will be offered on the Senate floor allowing communities to keep Sunday sales without holding another election.

Last year, the state Supreme Court sided with communities that wanted Sunday sales, ruling they can opt out of the Liquor Control Act because it is not applied uniformly.

Two sticking points that hurt the issue in the past were proposals to tie a tax increase to Sunday sales, and whether cereal malt beverage sales should be allowed on the Christian Sabbath.

Most communities that now allow Sunday sales are on the eastern side of the state, where cities compete for business with those across the state line in Missouri. Sunday sales have been allowed in that state for decades.