Legislative Advocacy
The 2024 Legislative session has begun — and its begun fast!
As we shared in December, we have three priorities for this year:
1) Voting Rights. Supporting legislation to change the Kentucky Constitution to allow people who have completed their sentences to automatically regain their voting rights.
2) Opposing the “Safer Kentucky Act” — an 18-point “anti-crime” wish list that is offensive on almost every scale (for talking points about this bill, please contact Rus at rus@kuujan.org)
3) a “Utility bill” that will make it illegal for utility companies to turn off the power to people with the temperature is above 90 or below 32 degrees.
As you all likely know, this is the budget year for the legislature, so we’ll be keeping an eye also on any budget issues that arise that we need to address or respond to. As we move through the session, I will likely have updates for you on each of these bills in each update — hopefully with a call to action!
Please Note: we expect that the first hearing on the Safer Kentucky Act will be on Wed Jan 17 at 10 AM (in the House Judiciary Committee). the Broad coalition of organizations working on this bill are wanting to pack the hearing room. If you are available and interested to join us on Wed Jan 17, let me know!
A first request:
If you have a relationship with your state rep or senator (by “relationship” I mean anything from you contact them regularly, to they are someone you consider a friend. If you have only contacted them once or occasionally, this does not count for our purposes) We’re looking to identify who of us have relationships with which legislators so that we can build our collective influence.
We’re also beginning to plan some skills-building webinars. Our first one will likely be in March or April, with a focus on “relational advocacy”. Please stay tuned for more information and details.
