The Power of Pressure
Part II of the Kentucky General Assembly convenes on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.
Review our bill list regularly and decide which bills to comment on. You can send comments to any lawmaker you wish in either the House or Senate, but make sure you start with your own lawmaker first. If you don’t know who that is, you can use this map to find them.
And then make those calls and send emails. Use this link to send an email (firstname.lastname@kylegislature.gov) or call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 to comment on bills starting at 7AM to 9PM ET Monday through Thursday, and 7AM-6PM on Fridays (Check times since staffing capacities and hours can vary during the break period).
Left: KCC's Director Lane Boldman, Feature Guest Alice Driver, KCC President Gerry James and Legislative Agent Randy Strobo at the KCC Summit. Right: Summit attendees taking notes for action!
KCC Legislative Summit Recap and Actions
First, we want to thank all of you who were able to join us for Kentucky Conservation Committee’s Legislative Summit 2025. We had a great turnout at Kentucky State University this past Sunday. If you were unable to join us, but would like to see the sessions, you can find them linked here (and embedded at the end of this blog) on KCC’s Vimeo channel. This video includes the following sessions:
KCC Welcome and Bill Review- Randy Strobo, Lane Boldman: (Minute 0:00:00)
Investing in Kentucky’s Lands and Waters- Heather Jeffs: (Minute 00:42:00)
Kentucky Ohio Regional Recreation Authority- David Wicks: (Minute 00:56:30)
Outdoors for All and Diversity Initiatives- Gerry James: (Minute 1:18:30)
Life and Death of the American Worker- Alice Driver (Minute 1:47:00)
Wildlife Crossings Pilot Project- Cassondra Cruikshank (Minute 2:46:30)
Discussions on Nuclear Energy Present and Past- Liz Natter (Minute 3:16:00)
Recent Developments on Energy in Kentucky- Josh Bills (Minute 3:42:00)
If you have questions on any of these sessions, we are glad to assist. Please contact us!
Tools to Use
During our conference last week, we provided several handouts and tools that you can use to influence bills that have already been filed and ones we anticipate in the near future. Here are just a few that we hope you will find helpful:
Talking Points: House Bill 137 (Air Quality Monitoring) and handout on Air Quality and Citizen Monitoring
Talking Points: House Bill 173 (Ordinances on rental properties- Impacting lead hazards) and handout on Lead Contamination and Health.
Legislator Contacts PLUS partial list of issues in or adjacent to their district
No Time to Turn Away
After the Presidential Inauguration on January 20th, we were aware that many activists chose to use their voice by boycotting social media or similar actions. However in the very short period between January 20th and our conference on January 26th, you are likely already aware that a flurry of executive actions from the President’s office were filed and included a hiring freeze, regulatory freeze, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and any pact or accord made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and a sweeping order reversing multiple previous orders involving racial equity, ethics, climate change, access to voting, clean cars, implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, implementation of the energy and infrastructure provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy industry incentives, and many, many more. There were also presidential actions to reverse the 14th Amendment guaranteeing birthright citizenship, expanding the use of fossil fuels and redefining “fuel” so that it does not include wind and solar. To see a partial summary click here. To see all of the President’s actions to date, click here.
Executive orders are not legislation; they require no approval from Congress, and Congress cannot simply overturn them. Congress may pass legislation that might make it difficult, or even impossible, to carry out the order, such as removing funding. Only a sitting U.S. President may overturn an existing executive order by issuing another executive order to that effect. But there are many questions about the legality and interpretation of many of these executive orders, including ones that withhold funding already appropriated. There are many legal advocacy groups and civic action groups who are now challenging many of these actions.
The depth and breadth of these actions are an unprecedented move that will immediately harm people, and we need a rapid, unified pushback. We ask that you tell your lawmakers at every opportunity how the grant cuts, freezes and executive rollbacks hurt everyday people and their ability to access essential services. Here is a memo from allies on the areas where the attacks on funding may impact you.
So as we told our attendees at last Sunday’s Legislative Summit, now is not the time to turn away in protest. Now is the time to be watching more closely than ever. Due to the intense response to many of these actions from citizens like you, the White House is already reversing some orders in part. However we believe these changes may only be temporary unless you keep the pressure on. We urge you to contact your U.S. Representatives (James Comer, Brett Guthrie, Morgan McGarvey, Thomas Massie, Hal Rogers, Andy Barr) and U.S. Senators (Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul) on these matters.