? Barely a month after Kansas made national headlines when its Legislature reversed course on tax policies that many had dubbed a “failed experiment,” Republicans in the U.S. House are about to start debate on a federal tax plan that is strikingly similar to the policies Kansas just repealed.

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday, the subject of which is “How Tax Reform Will Help America’s Small Businesses Grow and Create New Jobs.”

The hearing is expected to focus on concepts spelled out in a June 2016 report by a House Republican task force that was led by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. Key elements of that plan include:

• Reducing the number of tax brackets in the federal code and lowering the rates on all brackets.

• Raising the standard deduction and the child care tax credit for individuals while eliminating many tax exemptions, deductions and credits.

• Drastically reducing taxes on nonwage business income.

• And cutting the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent, instead of 25 percent, and also reducing the tax on dividends and capital gains to just half the regular individual rate.

Supporters of the bill say it is both fairer and flatter than the current tax code. For most individuals, they say, their yearly tax return could fit on a form the size of a postcard.

They also argue, as Gov. Sam Brownback has in Kansas, that their plan will stimulate economic growth.

“The goal of the Task Force was to deliver a strategy to create jobs, grow the economy, and raise wages by reducing rates, removing special interest carve-outs, and making our broken tax code simpler and fairer,” the report states.

Second District Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Topeka Republican, serves on the Ways and Means Committee. Although she was not available Tuesday to comment on the upcoming hearing, she has made public statements in the past supporting the concepts in that plan.

” We need a fairer, flatter code that helps build an opportunity economy for the American people,” Jenkins said in a statement posted on her congressional website. “As folks continue to struggle in this sluggish economy, reforming the tax code and tackling the U.S. debt, a figure that is now nearing $20 trillion, must be one of our priorities.”

Jenkins has already announced that she will not run for re-election in 2018.

Former Kansas Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, is one of several people eyeing that race. Davis served as House minority leader in the Kansas Legislature when Brownback pushed through similar tax policies in 2012, and he ran unsuccessfully against Brownback in 2014.

“I think there are some very striking similarities,” Davis said during a phone interview Tuesday, comparing the congressional plan to Brownback’s tax policies.

“What we do know from the Kansas experiment is that eliminating tax on pass-through entities does not lead to economic growth automatically,” Davis said. “I think the federal government looks to be heading down that pathway, and I believe it would be good for them to learn the lessons that we have learned here in Kansas.”

State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Leavenworth, is scheduled to formally announce Thursday that he will be a candidate for the 2nd District seat.

Fitzgerald is a conservative who was a strong supporter of Brownback’s tax policies. He voted against the legislation this year to reverse those policies, but he did not respond to a request to comment on the GOP congressional plan.