Kentucky legislature starts 2022 session with fight over new rules limiting debate
The Kentucky General Assembly started its 2022 session on Tuesday with an argument over new floor rules that could limit debate and discussion on the House floor.
The House and Senate also filed bills to create new districts for their 138 combined members, as well as Kentucky’s six-member congressional delegation, according to the new population totals determined by the 2020 Census. But maps of those districts — drawn in private by the Republican majorities — were not immediately made available.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told reporters that his chamber’s proposed redistricting won’t pit Senate incumbents against each other or remove any sitting senator from his current district. The state’s booming “Golden Triangle” of Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky will gain Senate seats using vacancies created by Senate retirements, Stivers said.
“Where there is population growth, you’re naturally going to see more representation,” Stivers said.
Sparks flew in the House as the Democratic minority complained that newly approved procedural rules could be used by GOP leaders to limit their right to debate measures.
House Minority Whip Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg, called the changes made by House Resolution 1 “a nail in what’s left of the coffin of our democracy.”
The change involves the House procedure for calling the “previous question,” a motion that a majority can vote on to cap debate on an amendment. In prior sessions, a call for the previous question gave supporters and opponents of legislation ten minutes each to make their case before a vote is called.
Under the new rules, the previous question immediately ends debate. It now must be ordered by a three-fifths majority as opposed to the previous simple majority, but Republicans currently dominate the House with a 75-24 majority.
Those rules were passed 72-to-25, with only one Republican, Deanna Frazier Gordon of Richmond, voting no.
Democrats said that rules “silence” opposition from them as well as dissenting voices within the Republican Party. Majority members said they will use the rule sparingly, and it’s in conformity with other floor rules.
Another major change introduces possibilities to limit debate. Rule 13 now expands the Speaker of the House’s ability to set limits on debate, giving them discretion to decide the time allotted for explanation of votes. It also lumps explanations of votes into an overall time limit for debate.
House Majority Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, argued for the rule changes by saying that debate is sometimes used to effectively filibuster bills the minority doesn’t like, slowing down the legislative process. And Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, said he has sponsored some bills that led to two to three hours of debate.
But Democrats defended the right to open-ended discussion in their chamber.
“I don’t know if I could possibly disagree with these rules more,” Hatton said. “Now, we’ve passed things that I’ve disagreed with before, but this one feels like a nail in the coffin of what’s left of our democracy.”
“What are you so afraid of that you have to limit debate,” asked Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville. “There are 24 Democrats, that’s what you’re trying to limit. We can’t stop a bill ... This is an erosion of our democracy.”
Marzian also mentioned the lack of masks — commonly used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — on the faces of legislators on the House floor Tuesday despite the current statewide surge in COVID cases.
Around the same time, Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, announced in a news release that he has tested positive for COVID after appearing without a mask Monday night on KET’s Kentucky Tonight with several other lawmakers.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 4:11 PM.
