Kansas plan on COVID mandates faces bipartisan skepticism

By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Conservative Kansas legislators are trying to tamp down fears about the cost and other potential problems with a proposal to provide unemployment benefits to workers who lose their jobs for refusing COVID-19 vaccines. The GOP-controlled Legislature expected to consider the measure during a special session convening Monday. They’re also expected to take up a proposal to make it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The measures are responses to vaccine mandates from President Joe Biden covering more than 100 million American workers. Critics fear the unemployment proposal could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Supporters say the measure on religious exemptions would prevent that.