Topeka ? Seven weeks after two victims’ stories had legislative leaders promising to seek better protections from abuse for disabled and mentally ill Kansans, an effort to rewrite state law has hit a snag.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline and the Disability Rights Center of Kansas argue the need for change was demonstrated by the case of a Newton couple convicted last year in federal court of abusing mentally ill adults in their care. The couple operated a treatment center for more than two decades.

The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services is questioning the legislation. Meanwhile, lobbyists for nursing homes and other service providers said Wednesday that they hadn’t been consulted and worried that the legislation could be too broad.

Leaders still predict the Legislature will approve the bill, but the House called off a debate planned for Wednesday. Resistance to the proposal is frustrating its backers.

“How can anybody not like protection?” said Sen. Peggy Palmer, R-Augusta, who was angry over recent questions, particularly from SRS, which has been criticized for not acting against the Newton couple.

But Shannon Jones, lobbyist for the Statewide Independent Living Council, said the measure needs more study, “with all the parties at the table.”

“We’re concerned about the haste with which it’s moving through,” she said.

In the Newton case, a jury found Arlan Kaufman, 69, guilty of 31 charges and his wife, Linda, of 30 charges, including health care fraud, Medicare fraud, forced labor and holding clients in involuntary servitude. Arlan Kaufman was sentenced to 30 years in prison and his wife to seven.

Prosecutors produced evidence that their treatment center had nude therapy sessions and forced residents to have oral sex and to perform other sex acts with each other while being videotaped.

Two former residents, identified only as Lynn and Nancy to protect their privacy, told legislators that they were placed in a locked “seclusion” room naked for days at a time, that residents were often left on their own and that medications weren’t properly supervised. They also said attempts to call attention to the mistreatment failed because they weren’t taken seriously.

The Disability Rights Center argues that state oversight of group homes and treatment centers focuses on licensing and requiring written plans of action when violations are found – not making life better for the residents. Kline said Wednesday that creating a new unit “will give us the ability to make a difference.”

And Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said, “I’m sort of puzzled why this doesn’t just breeze through and be finished.”

Senators approved the proposal last week on a 39-0 vote, and the House Federal and State Affairs Committee has endorsed a similar bill. However, groups with concerns about the bill also have started lobbying.

“There are apparently some concerns I didn’t realize, and we’re trying to work that out,” said House committee Chairman John Edmonds, R-Great Bend.

The bill not only would set up the unit in the attorney general’s office, but also require state agencies to forward complaints and documents to it.

Cindy Luxem, a lobbyist for the Kansas Health Care Assn., which represents long-term care homes, said the bill represents an “unprecedented way to go about gathering information.”

SRS spokesman Mike Deines said the agency questions whether the proposal could create more bureaucracy, cause confusion for the disabled and mentally ill and subject them to additional interviews when they complain about mistreatment.

“We want to get the bad guys,” he said. “We want to make sure perpetrators of adult abuse and neglect are prosecuted to the full extent.”

But House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, attributed the snag partially to “gamesmanship.”

Privately, other backers of the bill worried Wednesday that the issue is the Disability Rights Center claiming more turf or passing a bill helping Kline as he seeks re-election this year.

And Kline said: “I don’t think anybody wants any kind of oversight or scrutiny. I think part of that is natural.”