 Harrison Hems, Senate President Susan Wagle's chief of staff, said that he was dismissed on October 10, 2019 as a result of a disagreement over whether he should work on her campaign for the U.S. Senate.In February 2020, Wagle sought to block the federally-funded expansion of Medicaid to 150,000 Kansans, by linking it to an anti-abortion amendment to the state's constitution.Wagle routed all 11 House-passed bills on the Senate's debate calendar as well as returning two Senate health care bills back to committee, declaring that no House-passed bill on any subject would clear a Senate committee until the abortion measure is placed on the ballot.