Braving the ice and snow, returning and new members of the Kentucky General Assembly gathered in Frankfort Tuesday for the 2025 session.
After welcoming freshman lawmakers and taking the oaths of office, both chambers passed the new rules and procedures they’ll have to follow for the next few months. The rules guide how lawmakers pass legislation and establish parameters for discussion over them, such as when debate can be cut off or a vote forced.
Last year, members of the Republican party’s liberty wing took issue with the proposed rules, saying they silenced minority voices within the caucus and gave too much power to leadership. This year, the Democratic minority stood alone to oppose the rules, a version of which passed both chambers on party lines.
While most of the priority GOP bills likely haven’t been filed, House Bill 1 to approve another 0.5 percentage point trim to the state income tax was introduced and quickly dispatched to a committee. GOP House Speaker David Osborne of Prospect said he hopes to see that legislation passed through the House by the end of the week.
After Friday, lawmakers will take a three week break, which Osborne said they will use to discuss legislation and organize the caucus. Osborne said he and Republican Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy of Paducah expect this to be the session of “lowering things,” from the income tax to the age for getting a driver’s license.
“It's also the time that we will lower expectations about the number of bills that we pass,” Osborne said.
Osborne said the chamber frequently adjusts the rules to make the process “more open and transparent.”
“We do take suggestions and make those that we think make this place a better place to do business,” Osborne said.
The procedures of the state legislature have come under fire recently after the nonpartisan League of Women Voters published a report, finding a pervasive use of “fast-tracking” maneuvers that they say limit public participation.
Democratic Sen. Reggie Thomas of Lexington said that efforts to speed legislation through the process, such as introducing a wildly different committee substitute and then passing it later that day, hurt the democratic principles of the legislature.
“It prevents the public from being able to understand what a bill says and have their opinions expressed and have their feelings known,” Thomas said. “I think we ought to eliminate that. That is not something that we should ever approve. The public should always know what we're doing every day and be able to express their opinions to us as legislators before we vote on a bill."
One major change in the House rules would require all bills be assigned to a committee — an essential step before they can receive their first vote and make it to the House floor. But even if a bill gets assigned to a committee, that is far from a guarantee that it will come up for a vote or even be discussed. The Senate, which previously adopted that rule, actually cut it this year, meaning bills need not be quickly assigned to a committee.
GOP Rep. Savannah Maddox of Dry Ridge has previously expressed frustration over Republican leadership stifling dissent within the caucus. She decided to vote in favor of the rules Tuesday.
“I feel like their decision to refer all bills to a committee vs. letting them sit in [the] Committee on Committees is a direct result of the pressure we applied to decentralize the legislative process,” Maddox said.
The new set of rules also made a number of changes that Democrats argued would limit debate or change the procedures around tools occasionally used by the minority caucus. For example, Democrats attempted last year to force a vote on abortion exceptions using a discharge petition that expedites a bill held up in committee, but to no avail. The new changes also allow the chamber to stop members from explaining their votes after debate is curtailed.
Democratic Rep. Lindsey Burke from Lexington said she hoped to bring up her own version of the House rules on Wednesday. She said it borrows from previous sets of rules adopted in the House.
“We just want to make sure that the people of Kentucky know that the House Democrats are working hard to make sure that their voices aren't silenced here, and that every member will have an opportunity to debate when debate is needed, and that we're really here to speak on behalf of the people,” Burke said.
KPR Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
