Kansas Senate bill makes buying sex a felony on first offense, elevates minimum fine

TOPEKA — Prosecutors, law enforcement officers, nonprofit organizations and individuals Wednesday endorsed a Kansas Senate bill making the crime of buying sexual relations a felony on the first offense and mandating participation in an educational program on commercial sexual exploitation.

Legislation endorsed by Attorney General Kris Kobach and Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay would also raise the minimum fine to $2,000. Elevating the crime from a misdemeanor to a felony on the first offense would move cases from municipal court to district court, where a more complete record could be made of plea bargains and diversion agreements.

“We face a modern form of slavery — human trafficking,” Kagay told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “In 2021, I first proposed this legislation to address the demand side of the sex marketplace. The marketplace where these crimes occur is fueled by buyers whose actions create the daily indignities and abuses suffered by victims in our communities.”

He said the state must hold purchasers of sex accountable for their actions “because it is within our power — and our moral obligation — to stop this cycle of exploitation.”

Under Senate Bill 71, the attorney general’s office would select educational or treatment programs that would be available to district court judges when sentencing offenders. The crime of commercial sexual exploitation would be elevated to a Level 9 felony on July 1, 2026. The minimum fine would be raised from $1,200 to $2,000.

The bill would allow a person in Kansas to enter a diversion agreement for this crime once during his or her lifetime. The measure would prohibit a diversion for anyone who received one before July 1, 2025, even if that was approved in a municipal court.

Ed Klumpp, a lobbyist representing Kansas police chief, sheriff and peace officer associations, said a significant element of the bill was removing sexual exploitation cases from municipal courts. If the bill was signed into law, he said, information on all plea agreements, diversion deals and pending cases would be documented in the state court record and available to every prosecutor in Kansas.

“Currently, municipal violations are only recorded in a state system at time of arrest and time of conviction and that record will only be in the KBI files — not the court record system,” said Klumpp, a former Topeka police chief. “Because of this, details of the case will not be in the state court system, but scattered across the state in siloed municipal court systems and city prosecutor files.”

Matt Bingesser, administrative counsel to state attorney general, said educational or treatment programs endorsed by the attorney general would educate offenders on the prevalence of human trafficking and trauma experienced by victims.

The program mandate in the bill should foster a deeper understanding of the societal and individual consequences of their actions, he said.

Andrea Carter, a Manhattan resident who said she was a sex trafficking survivor, said the legislation would hold buyers to a higher standard of accountability and potentially reduce the misperception sex trafficking victims were expendable.

She shared with legislators the damage inflicted on her by people involved in human trafficking, including instances in which she was physically assaulted and held hostage.

“Because of the situation I was in, buyers took full advantage of my vulnerability to do whatever they wanted because there was nothing I could do,” Carter said. “I can attest to the fact that if there are no buyers, selling the vulnerable would not be profitable to the trafficker.”

Sharon Sullivan, executive director of the International Public Policy Institute, said enactment of a 2021 felony statute in Texas served to deter sex buyers. The reaction reinforced the idea that buyers were the only persons with a real choice in commercial sex transactions, she said.

“Human trafficking is a crime of greed,” Sullivan said. “If there is no money, traffickers will find another way to make money. It’s a basic business model. No demand, no need to create a supply.”

No testimony was offered in opposition to the bill during the Senate hearing, and the committee took no action on the measure.