Topeka ? The House Appropriations Committee approved a budget bill Tuesday that includes funding for the judicial branch, a move that likely protects the judiciary from having major policy changes attached to its funding.

On Monday, the panel held a hearing on a separate budget bill for the judiciary that includes about $6.8 million more than Gov. Sam Brownback had requested for the fiscal year starting July 1, and $11.2 million more than the governor proposed for the following fiscal year.

The judicial branch had requested $11.4 million more for next year, and $16.2 million more for fiscal year 2017. Under Brownback’s original budget proposal, judiciary officials warned that some courts could be forced to close for several days next year, which they said would jeopardize public safety.

But by putting it in a separate bill, the panel would have left open the possibility of adding other policy bills related to the judiciary without violating the Kansas Constitution’s ban on bills dealing with more than one subject.

Lawmakers used a similar procedure in 2014 when they passed a school funding bill that included several policy changes, including repeal of teacher tenure rights and corporate tax credits for contributions to scholarship programs for private schools.

Several bills are pending in the Legislature that could have been attached to a bill dealing only with the judiciary. Among those is a bill to lower the mandatory retirement age for judges, and a bill to abolish the Kansas Court of Appeals and replace it with two separate appellate courts for civil and criminal litigation.

During Monday’s hearing, officials from the Office of Judicial Administration and the Kansas District Judges Association both testified against putting the judicial budget in a separate bill.

On Tuesday, the Appropriations Committee agreed to put the judicial budget inside the same bill that funds all of the rest of state government, except K-12 education. That was done separately again this year as part of a bill that repeals the existing school finance formula and replaces it for two years with block grants.

The House bill includes nearly $8 million over two years to offset lower-than-expected docket fee collections, and $2.7 million for increased contributions to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.