Legislative Action for Special Session, September 2021

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  – Edmund Burke

The Governor has called a special session of the General Assembly in an attempt to reinstate a State of Emergency and all the mandates.  We have a very short window of time to contact our legislators and let them know that we support them in standing up to the governor’s continued power overreach.

In his proclamation of Saturday, September 4, he has 10 points that he wishes to address during the Special Session.

Andy's Wishes

1. Extend/reinstate the State of Emergency until January 15, 2022.

2. Reinstate all mandates that were revoked in HJR 77 – pretty much all the mandates for businesses, institutions and individuals.

3. Reinstate mandates for masks indoors.

4. Extend the limitation of liabilities stated in SB5 for businesses that “comply” with mandates.

5. Approve/extend insurance records related to SB150.

6. Approve more NTI days for the public schools and allocate additional spending for teacher leave.

7. Appropriate $69 MILLION for COVID mitigation activities, including contact tracing and quarantine facilities.

8. Appropriate $2 BILLION for “economic development”.

9. Extend a flooding-related emergency in Nicholas County.

10. Do some general power grabbing using Sec. 80 of the KY Constitution as justification.

Here's what to do RIGHT NOW and as often as possible through the end of the Special Session:

1. Find the name of your Senator and Representative here: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/findyourlegislator/findyourlegislator.html (or search KY find my legislator and choose the first option).  

2. Find your legislator's direct phone number and email (https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/contact_legislator.html and leave the above message and a brief reason.  Be polite and succinct.

3. Email your legislator and leave your message but put the key points in the SUBJECT line for best impact.  Keep it brief and friendly.  (Ex: Subject: Vote NO to any COVID Mandates.)  Some sample topics subject lines.

• Vote NO to extending the Emergency.

• Vote NO to any COVID mandates, incl business restrictions and mask mandates.

• Vote NO on appropriating money for COVID anything.

• Support BR106 and bills on mandatory vaccinations & passports.

Some sample email bodies:

• Vote no for any mandates-vaccines, masks or any other. 

• Healthcare decisions need to be left up to individuals and there is no one size fits all approach that is acceptable.

• Vote no for delegation of mandates to localities. 

• Parents should have the final say in the health and well-being of their children, not government entities, regardless of intentions. 

• The government overreach in the past 18 months has done nothing to stem the natural progression of transmission and infection but has only caused undue amounts of immense stress and poor outcomes across the common wealth. 

• Healthcare mandates have only resulted in negative outcomes with suppression of early treatment and loss of healthcare workers because of mandates. If patient outcomes are the priority, then allow the widespread use of early treatment, stop pharmacists from inappropriately prohibiting prescriptions from being filled, and revert to pre Covid visitation rights of patient family members to the bedside, which is the proven evidence based method of positive outcomes. 

• We hired you to protect our liberties, not micro manage our God given rights. If you choose to ignore those rights, you will be the one to lose your job at the next opportunity. 

FOR GREATEST EFFECTIVENESS - Email individual committee members as follows:

Note: It would be best to do individual emails rather than multi-person emails, so do that if you can, even if you copy and paste the same text.  Use the legislator’s name in the greeting.  Don’t forget to put a succinct subject line as that’s all they might read.

Interim Joint State Government Committee:

Message focus: Any of the above topics, but particularly, state of emergency, covid mandates and financial appropriations.

• Robby.Mills@lrc.ky.gov

• Kevin.Bratcher@lrc.ky.gov

• Jerry.Miller@lrc.ky.gov

• Ralph.Alvarado@lrc.ky.gov

• Denise.HarperAngel@lrc.ky.gov

• Chris.McDaniel@lrc.ky.gov

• Morgan.McGarvey@lrc.ky.gov

• Michael.Nemes@lrc.ky.gov

• Wil.Schroder@lrc.ky.gov

• Adrienne.Southworth@lrc.ky.gov

• Brandon.Storm@lrc.ky.gov

• Damon.Thayer@lrc.ky.gov

• Phillip.Wheeler@lrc.ky.gov

• John.Blanton@lrc.ky.gov

• Adam.Bowling@lrc.ky.gov

• McKenzie.Cantrell@lrc.ky.gov

• Jennifer.Decker@lrc.ky.gov

• Jim.DuPlessis@lrc.ky.gov

• Joe.Fischer@lrc.ky.gov

• Kelly.Flood@lrc.ky.gov

• Jim.Gooch@lrc.ky.gov

• Derrick.Graham@lrc.ky.gov

• Richard.Heath@lrc.ky.gov

• Samara.Heavrin@lrc.ky.gov

• Marybeth.Imes@lrc.ky.gov

• DJ.Johnson@lrc.ky.gov

• Matthew.Koch@lrc.ky.gov

• Derek.Lewis@lrc.ky.gov

• Scott.Lewis@lrc.ky.gov

• Savannah.Maddox@lrc.ky.gov

• Reginald.Meeks@lrc.ky.gov

• Patti.Minter@lrc.ky.gov

• Kimberly.Moser@lrc.ky.gov

• Jason.Nemes@lrc.ky.gov

• Attica.Scott@lrc.ky.gov

• Tom.Smith@lrc.ky.gov

• Pamela.Stevenson@lrc.ky.gov

• Nancy.Tate@lrc.ky.gov

• James.Tipton@lrc.ky.gov

• Ken.Upchurch@lrc.ky.gov

• Russell.Webber@lrc.ky.gov

• Buddy.Wheatley@lrc.ky.gov

Interim Joint Health and Welfare Committee:

Message Focus: Covid Mandates

• Ralph.Alvarado@lrc.ky.gov

• Stephen.Meredith@lrc.ky.gov

• Julie.RaqueAdams@lrc.ky.gov

• Karen.Berg@lrc.ky.gov

• Danny.Carroll@lrc.ky.gov

• David.PGivens@lrc.ky.gov

• Denise.HarperAngel@lrc.ky.gov

• Jason.Howell@lrc.ky.gov

• Alice.Kerr@lrc.ky.gov

• Mike.Nemes@lrc.ky.gov

• Max.Wise@lrc.ky.gov

Interim Joint Appropriations & Revenue Committee:

Message focus: $69M Covid appropriation, $2B economic development appropriation

• Chris.McDaniel@lrc.ky.gov

• Jason.Petrie@lrc.ky.gov

• Danny.Carroll@lrc.ky.gov

• Matt.Castlen@lrc.ky.gov

• DavidP.Givens@lrc.ky.gov

• AliceForgy.Kerr@lrc.ky.gov

• Morgan.McGarvey@lrc.ky.gov

• Stephen.Meredith@lrc.ky.gov

• MichaelJ.Nemes@lrc.ky.gov

• RobinL.Webb@lrc.ky.gov

• Stephen.West@lrc.ky.gov

• Lynn.Bechler@lrc.ky.gov

• Danny.Bentley@lrc.ky.gov

• John.Blanton@lrc.ky.gov

• Randy.Bridges@lrc.ky.gov

• Myron.Dossett@lrc.ky.gov

• JosephM.Fischer@lrc.ky.gov

• Ken.Fleming@lrc.ky.gov

• Kelly.Flood@lrc.ky.gov

• Chris.Fugate@lrc.ky.gov

• Al.Gentry@lrc.ky.gov

• David.Hale@lrc.ky.gov

• Mark.Hart@lrc.ky.gov

• Angie.Hatton@lrc.ky.gov

• Jason.Nemes@lrc.ky.gov

• RuthAnn.Palumbo@lrc.ky.gov

• MelindaGibbons.Prunty@lrc.ky.gov

• Josie.Raymond@lrc.ky.gov

• Brandon.Reed@lrc.ky.gov

• Steve.Riley@lrc.ky.gov

• Sal.Santoro@lrc.ky.gov

• James.Tipton@lrc.ky.gov

• Lisa.Willner@lrc.ky.gov

Interim Joint Education Committee:

Message focus: Public school NTI days and funding for additional teacher leave

• Max.Wise@lrc.ky.gov

• Stephen.West@lrc.ky.gov

• Danny.Hidgon@lrc.ky.gov

• David.Givens@lrc.ky.gov

• Denise.HarperAngel@lrc.ky.gov

• Jimmy.Hidgon@lrc.ky.gov

• Alice.Kerr@lrc.ky.gov

• Stephen.Meredith@lrc.ky.gov

• Gerald.Neal@lrc.ky.gov

• Adrienne.Southworth@lrc.ky.gov

• Robert.Stivers@lrc.ky.gov

• Reginald.Thomas@lrc.ky.gov

• Mike.Wilson@lrc.ky.gov

Interim Joint Economic Development Committee:

Message focus: $2B economic development appropriation

• Wil.Schroder@lrc.ky.gov

• Russell.Webber@lrc.ky.gov

• Rick.Girdler@lrc.ky.gov

• Alice.Forgy@lrc.ky.gov

• Chris.McDaniel@lrc.ky.gov

• Robby.Mills@lrc.ky.gov

• Adrienne.Southworth@lrc.ky.gov

• Brandon.Storm@lrc.ky.gov

• Reginald.Thomas@lrc.ky.gov

• Phillip.Wheeler@lrc.ky.gov

• Mike.Wilson@lrc.ky.gov

• David.Yates@lrc.ky.gov

• Shane.Baker@lrc.ky.gov

• Kim.Banta@lrc.ky.gov

• Lynn.Bechler@lrc.ky.gov

• Tina.Bojanowski@lrc.ky.gov

• Josh.Bray@lrc.ky.gov

• Georg.Brown@lrc.ky.gov

• Josh.Calloway@lrc.ky.gov

• McKenzie.Cantrell@lrc.ky.gov

• Daniel.Elliott@lrc.ky.gov

• Chris.Freeland@lrc.ky.gov

• Al.Gentry@lrc.ky.gov

• Mark.Hart@lrc.ky.gov

• Thomas.Huff@lrc.ky.gov

• DJ.Johnson@lrc.ky.gov

• Kim.King@lrc.ky.gov

• Nima.Kulkarni@lrc.ky.gov

• William.Lawrence@lrc.ky.gov

• Matt.Lockett@lrc.ky.gov

• Bart.Rowland@lrc.ky.gov

• Scott.Sharp@lrc.ky.gov

• Steve.Sheldon@lrc.ky.gov

• Ashley.TackettLaferty@lrc.ky.gov

Here's what to do EVERY WEEKDAY starting Tuesday, September 7:

• Put the Legislative Hotline number into your speed dial so you can call quickly: 1-800-372-7181.  Call as early as possible in the day.  The line is open 7am to 9pm M-Th and 7am to 6pm F.

• When you call them, they are very nice and are just there to take your message.  If you give them your name and address, they will tell you who your Senator and Representative are.  The next time you call, they will have you on file.

• Call the Legislative Hotline and say this [add brief reasons anytime you feel moved to – sample reason included here but encourage you to use your own]:  “I would like to leave a message for: [my legislator or Interim Joint XXXXX Committee].  Then give the message you’d like to leave.

• You may leave as many messages as you want.  You can also leave the same message for as many legislators or committees as you want.