Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Augusta, center, chairs a meeting of the Senate Ways and Means Committee with vice chairman Sen. Jim Denning of Overland Park, left, and Sen. Laura Kelly, the ranking Democrat. The panel voted Monday to cut funding for the Kansas University campus in Lawrence by .4 million over two years, but not to transfer that money to the KU Medical Center campus in Wichita, as earlier proposed.

Topeka ? As support in the Kansas House appeared to erode for its proposed budget for the next two years, the Senate Ways and Means Committee went back to work on its own bill, hoping to come up with a version that may be more acceptable to conservatives in the House.

During a hastily-called meeting Monday, the Senate panel made a handful of changes to the bill it had previously sent to the full Senate.

Among those was reinserting a $9.4 million cut to the Kansas University campus in Lawrence, but deleting an earlier provision to shift that money to the KU Medical Center campus in Wichita. As the bill stands now, the Senate bill would simply cut $9.4 million from the Lawrence campus.

The Senate panel also deleted $2 million that it had earlier proposed adding to the state’s comprehensive grant program, a form of need-based student financial aid. But the panel kept a requirement that at least 75 percent of the remaining $15.7 million in grants go to students from independent, private colleges, such as Baker University in Baldwin City.

Those actions came as support appeared to be eroding in the Kansas House for its budget bill, which was tentatively slated to come up for debate and a vote on Tuesday.

According to several sources, opposition to that bill has been mounting from two factions: conservatives who want to see larger cuts in state spending, and others who want to include expansion of Medicaid as allowed under the federal Affordable Care Act.

In addition, House Majority Leader Jene Vickrey, R-Louisburg, said there is concern about whether the state can afford to fund the proposed budget, which officials have said may require at least $135 million in additional state revenue.

“I guess basically it’s a timing issue for the budget, putting a budget together with unknowns about revenue and unknown revenue estimates,” Vickrey said. “It’s a difficult year. Our appropriations committee has done very good work. We started this with a huge hole; we’ve pared it down with work we’ve done to something that is manageable, but the next step, we’re still working on.”

The changes in higher education spending in the Senate bill were first proposed by a subcommittee of that panel, but they were not included in the House version.

Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Augusta, who chairs the Ways and Means panel, said Monday’s actions were intended to produce a bill that the two chambers could negotiate in conference committee.

The Senate’s budget proposal is included in a House bill, so even if the House is unable to pass its own bill, it could either take a vote to concur with the Senate bill or request a conference committee.

Masterson said the Senate still plans to debate and vote on its budget bill Wednesday.