It's a Hot Girl Legislative Session!!
Ya girl has been, quite literally, a hot girl this session.
The fastest way to become a Frankfort Hot Girl this session?
Sitting in the Senate gallery, apparently, which I — generously — described as “merely a degree cooler than hell itself.”
I do it for y’all! (And because I no longer have anywhere else to sit basically anywhere on the grounds of the state Capitol!)
Let’s begin.
New year, same rules
Kentucky’s 2024 legislative session started Tuesday and lawmakers haven’t done much except file bills and vote on rules for their chambers. (Oh, and deal with a bomb threat which ended up being a false alarm.)
The rules vote is typically a standard, procedural thing, but not so much this year. In both the House and the Senate, Democrats raised concerns about transparency sparked by the GOP-run legislature’s track record of fast-tracking controversial bills (looking at you, six-minute-sprint to hear SB 150 in committee).
And in the House, a faction of Republicans wanted rule changes after leadership suddenly yanked (but restored) the committee placements of several “liberty”-oriented Rs. (According to KPR, one Republican threatened those in favor of the rule changes by pushing for tolls on the Brent Spence Bridge. Nothing, absolutely nothing gets the party going quite like a threat about tolls on the Brent Spence. NOTHING.)
All pushes failed and the rules remain the same as last year.
The legislation is here, the legislation is here
Dozens and dozens of bills got filed across the first two days of the legislative session, with more surely expected before the bill filing deadlines in late February.
I’m still working my way through them, but here are a few ones that jumped out at me from the initial filings.
Senate Bill 6: It wasn’t really a question of if the culture wars would return to Kentucky, but when and in what form. Enter SB 6, which targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Kentucky’s public colleges and universities.
The bill, filed by Republican Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson, would prohibit higher ed institutions from taking any type of adverse treatment against students, employees or applicants to be either for their refusal to support any one of a list of “divisive concepts,” among other things. (I explain more in this TikTok.)
The list of “divisive concepts” is basically the same list of concepts that old “critical race theory” legislation sought to ban from K-12 schools - think things about white privilege, believing one race or sex is inherently better than another, promoting a violent overthrow of the federal government, etc. You know, the works.
SB 6 has already been assigned to the Senate Education Committee, but it is important to note that the Senate tends to quickly assign bills to committee and then waits weeks to act on them.
Senate Bill 10: This one, from Sen. Chris McDaniel, would ask voters to move Kentucky’s constitutional officer elections (aka all the big statewide races we just had in November) to the same time as presidential election. McDaniel said via press release the change could help curb voter fatigue.
Several bills focus on making it cheaper to have your period by ending the sales tax for what one lawmaker called “menstrual discharge collection devices.”
There are also multiple bills focused, broadly, on making things easier for families. I’m still combing through these, so stay tuned for more details.
House Bill 79: Rep. Bill Wesley’s bill would require anyone getting a driver’s license to speak English and be able to pass a test decoding road signs written in English. (And the bill right before this, HB 78, also from Wesley, would allow folks to donate game meat to feed those incarcerated. It’s called range.)
Young money, cash money
2024 is a budget year and Kentucky has some money, y’all. But there isn’t too crazy much agreement as to how to spend it, or how much of it to spend.
Gov. Andy Beshear shared his budget pitches before the session started, including raises for school employees and investing millions in universal preschool and child care facilities.
And a coalition of advocacy groups added to the chorus Tuesday, calling for the surplus to be used on things like affordable housing, education and disaster recovery.
But they don’t run the budget. The GOP-dominated legislature does. And Republican leaders have said:
They’re generally uninterested in raising teacher salaries outside of bumping up the per-student amount (called SEEK) so districts can determine their own raises, if they’d like.
They’re also uninterested in universal preschool, citing minimal appetite for it amongst Republicans.
They might potentially be interested in dipping into the state’s record-breaking $3.7 billion rainy day fund, but only to pay down the state’s pension liabilities.
Their full budget offering should come in the next week or so.
Assorted other things
Whatever happened to Daniel Cameron? The former Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate will lead the 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit focused on attacking “woke” practices in companies.
Rep. Kevin Bratcher told me to expect legislation looking at potentially splitting JCPS into smaller districts to come from the Senate side, rather than him in the House. No timeline on when a bill could drop. It is worth adding that similar language that got randomly and suddenly added to a different bill late last session was met with swift and bipartisan opposition in committee.
If you’d like to run for statehouse, you have until Friday afternoon to do so! We can chat about who decided to run (or not) Sunday.
Here’s how to find bills
Now that the LRC (read: the nonpartisan folks who make the legislature run) has 2024’s legislative record online, you can read all of this year’s bills (and vote records, etc.):
For Senate bills, go here.
For House bills, go here.
And here’s the main landing page for the session. This is where you can find stuff like vote records.
Where can you find my work this session?
As a reminder and/or ICYMI:
The Gallery Pass, obvs.
Twitter will be my go-to spot for live updates.
TikTok will be home for my daily recaps + bill explainers + outfit posts.
Instagram will also be running anything I can make fit into my aesthetic.
LEO Weekly will be home for all of my full-length, original reporting.
Remember: the legislature meets today and Friday, and my next newsletter will land in you inboxes Sunday evening.
Once again, thank you for being here. Please encourage your friends/family/coworkers to subscribe.
Finally, if you haven’t already, take a second and tell me what political issues you want me to watch in 2024.
ok, byeeee!