Former Sen. Sam Brownback signs worker Shirley Thompson’s cast July 18, 2009, during a stop at Cottonwood Inc.

Testimony during confirmation hearings this week on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor did nothing to change Sen. Sam Brownback’s plans to vote against elevating her to the nation’s highest court.

“I’m deeply concerned about her being a strong activist that wants the role of the court to be different than just being a court,” Brownback, R-Kan., said during a visit Friday to Cottonwood Inc. in Lawrence.

Brownback has been one of the strongest critics of Sotomayor’s elevation to the Supreme Court. But Sotomayor’s confirmation appears certain because Democrats have a sizable Senate majority. A few Republican senators also have said they intend to vote for her.

Brownback, who will run for Kansas governor in 2010, said he believed Sotomayor wants “the court to be a super-legislative body or is OK with that.”

During his visit to the Lawrence nonprofit that provides services to people with developmental disabilities, Brownback said the agency’s leaders were working hard to grapple with the tight economic situation.

“It looks like this facility is doing well overall. The management is really hustling to get it done, but it’s a challenge like it is for anything,” he said of Cottonwood, 2801 W. 31st St., which also operates a line to assemble military straps and other items.

Brownback also responded to other topics during an interview.

• Health care reform proposals by congressional Democrats: “Instead of relying on so much government intrusion, it needs to have more market competition in it.” He noted there is a need to change the nation’s health care system, but those changes should come incrementally, rather than through a one-time overhaul.

• A “cap-and-trade” energy bill that narrowly passed the House: “I think it has little prospects in the Senate. It is a massive energy tax.”

• Chances of securing federal funding for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan: “We’re going to be able to get this done, but it is work. We’re having to really push in a bipartisan fashion to get this done, but I think we’re going to get it done.”

• Whether his Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act could have unintended consequences and stymie broad areas of research. “No. This is narrowly targeted, and it’s just an area we shouldn’t go.”