By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
A companion bill to a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to add days after the mandated end of a session passed a House Committee on Friday.
Senate President Pro Tem David Givens, R-Greensburg, is sponsor of Senate Bill 181, the companion measure to House Bill 4, the constitutional amendment sponsored by House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect.
Senate President Pro Tem David Givens
It would allow the leaders of the House and Senate to issue a joint proclamation that could call lawmakers back to Frankfort for up to 12 days a year, but no more than four days in any one week. The original language of the proposed amendment required a 3/5 vote by both chambers to be called into session.
Currently, when a regular session adjourns, any legislation that was not approved by both houses immediately dies. SB 181 would keep the bills alive through Dec. 31.
Givens appeared before the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs, to explain his bill.
“This concept of keeping a bill alive through the calendar year was something that was very intriguing,” he testified. “If it’s a good issue and a good bill, it’s going to continue to survive in committee. If it’s not, it will just languish in committee.”
He noted, “In my years of being here in the General Assembly, this may be the most substantial lasting piece of legislation. This bill tries to move us as legislators to a truly co-equal branch of government level.”
The committee also approved a bill, SB 228, that changes how vacancies in the U.S. Senate are addressed. Currently, the governor appoints people to fill the vacancy. That would continue under SB 228, but he or she would have to choose one of three people recommended by the central committee of the party to which the senator who created the vacancy belonged.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, the sponsor of the measure, told the panel a lot of people have been asking him what this is about.
“Is it about Sen. Mitch McConnell? Is he retiring? Let me make this definitive statement: He is not sick, he is not leaving, maybe to some people’s chagrin. He plans to be there, because I asked him about this, and said, ‘If I file this, people will question why am I filing this?’ It has nothing to do with anybody potentially leaving.”
Stivers says he spoke to McConnell on the bill. “He looked at me and said, ‘I think it’s appropriate and I like what it does.’”
People have questioned him about the timing, according to Stivers, by saying he is doing it because the current governor, Andy Beshear, is a Democrat.
Stivers said, “No. I think when this was brought to my attention, I wish this had been in place two years ago. Because I’m not so sure I’d want the former Governor [Republican Matt Bevin] having unfettered discretion to pick a replacement.”
Both SB 181 and SB 228 now head to the House floor.
