Great news, y’all — it no longer hurts (at least 92% of the time) to see out of my right eye! Plz continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery, because your girl does not have vision insurance rn.
ICYMI: I somehow managed to maybe scratch my right eye while I was sobbing my eyes out over yet again not having anyone to go to Thunder Over Louisville with running errands Saturday evening.
Due to the sheer pain I was in, plus some issues, obvs, like, seeing, that’s why you’re getting this newsletter Monday night instead of the normal Sunday. (I shared this on The Gallery Pass’ Twitter, which you should follow if you haven’t already.)
Anywho, I’ve been lowkey promising a full rundown of how all the things I’ve covered in The Gallery Pass during Kentucky’s 2024 legislative session, so my party people, here it is.
BUT FIRST!! I’ve talked a lil bit recently about trying to figure out how to navigate this newsletter when session isn’t going on. Please fill out this survey and tell me how to live my life. plzplzplzthx
A broad overview
I have at least hinted at or mentioned around 114 different bills or concurrent resolutions since The Gallery Pass launched nearly four months ago. (They grow up so fast.)
(Let it be known that this is a tiny fraction of the roughly ~1,200 bills filed this session. I focused on the bills I thought were most important because I don’t like wasting your time.)
So, those 114 — how did they fare? Um, honestly, generally not well:
One got quickly withdrawn (RIP to the cousin incest bill)
Two passed and since they were asking for constitutional amendments, they never needed to go to Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk and will go straight to y’all’s November ballots*
*I think I may have accidentally forgotten to mention one of them — Senate Bill 143, which would forbid people who aren’t U.S. citizens to vote in Ky.’s elections. My bad. (Planning on having a deeper dive on the two proposed constitutional amendments in a future newsletter, so hang tight.)
23 became law in some form or fashion:
13 were simply signed into law by Beshear (this includes the bill that the “Momnibus” bill got stuffed into at the last second that I hadn’t technically mentioned, but became something I mentioned and then also law.)
3 became law without Beshear’s signature, which, again, is a thing he can do.
7 became law after the legislature overrode Beshear’s veto, either in whole or in part.
88 (!!) died dead. RIP. That’s 77.2% of all of the bills/resolutions I’ve mentioned in the newsletter.
For my visual learners, I have prepared a demonstration for you. (I am working on a custom color scheme for future data viz moments, have no fear [I am nothing without my brand.])
But in terms of the legislative process
I, for one, love watching things slowly fall apart.
Of those 114 bills and resolutions:
29 never got a committee assignment, period, point blank, sorry, toodles.
85 got assigned to a committee.
Reminder that the House doesn’t typically assign much to committees, but the Senate, which represents 42 of those 114 bills/resolutions, tends to immediately assign bills to committee (unless you’re Sen. David Yates and you’re trying to add some tiny exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion law)
Of those 85 who at least got a committee assignment, 57 cleared their first committee vote. (good for them)
Of those 57, 48 passed out of one chamber. (again, good for them)
But of those 48, only 26 ended up passing out of the other chamber.
And ultimately, only 25 ended on Beshear’s* desk. (*Including the two constitutional amendments, which literally and technically go straight to the Secretary of State.)
Again, for my visual learners!
So the specific bills
I know, I know, we’ve covered so much, so quickly, I should be sharing specific bill details. And, trust, I planned on doing that … until I realized so, so, so many of the bills we’ve discussed have already had their end results discussed in previous newsletters. So, please refer back!
(I’ve taken all of my past newsletters out from behind a paywall, which I realize now was a silly idea to start with, so everything should be publicly accessible.)
But as I was checking on things tonight, I noticed a few things worth noting rn:
House Bill 275, which was the second attempt from some in the House GOP to address Kentucky’s teacher misconduct issues, failed to pass.
Oof. I understand it is a prickly issue to address — you have to balance doing right by kids while also giving accused educators due process — but still, oof.
House Bill 449, which wanted to give folks who wanted to run for school board but who didn’t have easy access to their high school transcript another option, got signed into law.
As someone who flirted with a school board run for approximately 24 hours, all of which were immediately before the filing deadline, this is a big deal.
House Bill 289, aka the bill Rep. Nick Wilson meant to file but instead accidentally filed the infamous cousin incest bill, never went anywhere.
This revised bill wanted to expand what kind of “contact” is considered to be incest.
TBH, not sure why this didn’t move at all — it seemed to be trying to fix a clear loophole in the law in an effort to protect kids.
Wilson quickly owned the mistake and withdrew the bill within a day of me spotting his error (yeaaah, y’all are welcome for that), refiled this new bill, which I thought would’ve distanced his actual intent from his uh situation, but maybe not.
As an aside, while reporting out this newsletter, I noticed Wilson’s LRC bio lists his accolades, in part, “Survivor (TV Show): David Vs Goliath Season Winner. KY Colonel.” And I think that’s beautiful.
Some programming notes
I apologize for the lack of Taylor Swift content in this newsletter. I am still fighting my way through 31 (!!) new songs. Will provide further reflections at a later date.
Please keep sending me ideas for future newsletters that you’d like to see! You can respond directly to this newsletter or email me directly at olivia.krauth@gmail.com. (Or drop them in the survey that I linked at the top of the newsletter.)
To my paid subscribers who pay monthly: Please double-check the card you have on file right quick. I’ve noticed a few paid folks who recently got unsubscribed due to issues with autorenew not being able to … auto renew. I don’t know what happens to you when autorenew cannot auto renew, and I don’t want anyone to randomly and accidentally lose access to the newsletter. (And, yes, I still want your $5 each month, thx)
ok, y’all, as long as my eye doesn’t give out, i will see you soon. toodles!