The Kentucky Senate and House will operate under the same rules they used in 2023 despite allegations of “fast-tracking” of bills in a Nov. 29 League of Women Voters of Kentucky report.
The House voted 72-23 to adopt the same rule of procedures – except for the change in the year from 2023 to 2024 – despite concerns raised by some House Democrats that the rules allow the Republican majority to rush votes and file bill substitutes with minimal time for review by citizens and legislators. The League claimed that such maneuvers “undermine citizen participation” in its report “How Can They Do That?” released last year.
The Senate adopted its rules by voice vote without debate, according to Senate staff. A motion by Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reginald Thomas (D-Lexington) to postpone a vote to allow more time to review the rules was denied.
Senate and House rules lay out procedures for voting on bills, committee actions, amendments, motions, and other legislative actions. Each chamber has authority to suspend its rules at all times. That can come in handy when lawmakers want to move a bill more quickly through the legislative process.
Sometimes, the rules themselves can accomplish that purpose – current rules in both the House and Senate allow either chamber to move bills more quickly by doing away with two of three required full readings of a bill if agreed to by a majority of the members of the body.
The League report – which says 32% of bills that passed the House and 24% of bills that passed the Senate in 2022 were fast-tracked, or moved through the legislative process too fast to allow public input – recommended that both chambers hold the three required bill readings on three separate days. Other recommendations were also made, including making committee substitutes to bills available online at least one day before they’re brought up in committee.
House Minority Floor Leader Derrick Graham (D-Frankfort), one of several House Democrats who asked that the League recommendations be incorporated into the rules, motioned that House Speaker David Osborne (R-Prospect) give members a “few minutes” to review the proposal. Osborne called a 15-minute recess, but the rules were ultimately left unchanged upon return.
A motion to table the resolution (House Resolution 2) that proposed the new rules was made by House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts (D-Newport). That motion was defeated by a vote of 24-69.
Osborne said in a floor speech that some of the comments made by Democrats in support of the League report “relied on a group that cloaks itself in nonpartisanship,” referring to the League. Osborne claimed the League study that resulted in the report had “multiple flaws” and that he disagreed with the data.
But Roberts, who spoke on the floor soon thereafter, said the legislative process has moved more quickly during her four years representing House District 67 in Campbell County. “We saw this morning we didn’t have the rules on our computers when we asked for the recess so we could review the rules. And I hear it from my constituents,” that the process is fast-tracked, said Roberts.
“If we are here to create good policy, then what are we afraid of?” she said.
Graham – who unsuccessfully battled 2022 Republican-drawn House legislative and congressional redistricting maps to the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2023 – said the argument made by the League and several lawmakers asking for a review of the rules is “about transparency,” adding “Transparency is the foundation of making us a strong democratic assembly.
“The rules protect not just our procedures on the floor but how open those procedures will be,” said Graham, a 22-year state lawmaker who in December announced he won’t seek reelection. “All Kentuckians are affected by what we do on the chamber floor. In 2024, with all the technology available to us we should have no problem making the process more transparent if possible,” he said.
Tuesday was the first day of the Kentucky General Assembly’s 60-day legislative session with passage of a state budget at the top of their session to-do list. Lawmakers will resume their business on Wednesday. A joint session of the Senate and House will be held Wednesday night when lawmakers convene for Gov. Andy Beshear’s State of the Commonwealth address at 7 p.m.