A farewell letter from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt

By Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt Special to the Tribune

Serving as your attorney general these past 12 years – the second longest tenure in Kansas history – has been a privilege. Most of the quiet good our professional team accomplished made few headlines: We recovered $1.1 billion for Kansas consumers and taxpayers, far more than any prior administration, while spending less than $300 million running the office – a nearly four-to-one return on investment.

We reached multi-state legal settlements with companies peddling opioid painkillers that fueled an addiction crisis. This will bring more than $278 million to Kansas over the next decade- and-a-half (in addition to the $1.1 billion above) to support addiction prevention, intervention and treatment.

In 2011, Kansas stood accused of violating the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, and tobacco companies wanted hundreds of millions of dollars returned. We eliminated that liability and solidified future compliance so children's programs will keep receiving their annual $50 million-plus in settlement funds. That included negotiating unprecedented agreements with the four Resident Tribes to better account for tobacco sales in Kansas.

We helped the Legislature and three governors return the Kansas public-school funding system to compliance with the Kansas constitution and successfully defended their work in the Kansas Supreme Court.

We built a modern forensic science center and, alongside Washburn University, created a path for Kansas kids who want to become forensic scientists to pursue education and career dreams in Kansas.

We modernized information technology to make the office more efficient and secure, and added vast amounts of current and historic public information to the office website.

We successfully prosecuted more child abusers than any previous administration, created the Child Victims Unit and the Northeast Child Victims Task Force at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and helped fix shortcomings in the state's civil commitment program that treats sex predators.

We bolstered appellate capacity and now handle all criminal appeals from 47 counties. We argued eight times for Kansas before the U.S. Supreme Court – and won them all.

We helped ensure upstream states' compliance with the Interstate Water Compacts on the Arkansas and Republican Rivers, including establishing disgorgement of unjust gains as an available remedy.

We built unprecedented capacity to investigate and prosecute elder abuse by overhauling the Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Unit; creating the Fraud and Abuse Litigation Division that also prosecutes securities and insurance fraud; and strengthening the Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division, including persuading Congress to expand our authority.

We helped strengthen Kansas anti-human trafficking laws, prioritized training of law enforcement and victim support, and improved our national Protected Innocence Challenge score from an "F" to an "A."

We expanded our annual crime victim Remembrance Receptions to four locations across the state.

We worked with the Legislature to strengthen statutory foundations for programs in our charge including open-government enforcement, batterer intervention, Medicaid inspector general, livestock theft investigation, the Kansas Intelligence Fusion Center, roofing contractor registration, and charities registration.

We created the Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator and developed the "Kansas-A Friend Asks" suicideprevention app. I hope someday this app will be on all Kansas students' mobile devices and tablets.

We raised private funds to expand and repair the Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial honoring fallen officers.

We helped pioneer state attorneys general protecting modern federalism by challenging illegal federal actions. The list includes successful challenges to parts of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), the Waters of the United States rule, various emissions regulations that would have increased energy costs for working families, "jab-orjob" vaccine mandates that threatened the livelihood of thousands of Kansans, a federal attempt to micromanage state tax codes, federal burdens on religious liberties, and numerous actions related to the federal government's failure to secure our southern border.

On January 9, I will deliver the Office of Attorney General to my successor better than I found it and will always remain grateful for having served. Thank you, Kansas, for this extraordinary opportunity.

Derek Schmidt is the 44th Kansas Attorney General.