Blog — Whitney Westerfield

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Passed the Halfway Mark

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Passed the Halfway Mark

We kicked off week nine of the 2020 Regular Session with a visit from two special guests in the Senate chamber, Save the Children Action Network President, Mark Shriver and award-winning actress, Jennifer Garner. Many might not know that Jennifer Garner grew up in West Virginia where she witnessed the effects of generational poverty on children, similar to those we see in rural Kentucky. With the help of local advocates, Ms. Garner and Mr. Shriver are working to preserve funding for Save the Children’s early childhood education and literacy programs, which serve more than 12,000 children throughout the Commonwealth. It was an honor to welcome them to Frankfort. 

The Kentucky General Assembly crossed another mile marker this week by reaching the deadline to file new bills. Slightly less than 1,000 bills were filed — 286 Senate bills and 647 House bills. With the bill filing deadline behind us, we now have a more complete view of the issues lawmakers will take up this year. There are sure to be tough decisions and compromises made in the final weeks ahead.

Senate Bill (SB) 2, the proposed voter ID requirement, passed in the House on Tuesday with various amendments to find a compromise among House members.  However, the Senate voted to “not concur” with these changes, and is therefore asking the House to recede from its changes to the bill.  If the House does not “recede,” SB 2 may then move to a conference committee, made up of both House and Senate members, for further discussion.  If a compromise between chambers can be hammered out, the Conference Committee issues a new draft that then gets a vote in each chamber.

The medical marijuana bill, HB 136, was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week and I’m continuing to read through the proposal, marking it up with questions and comments. I plan to meet with the bill sponsor next week to work through those concerns. Separately, House Resolution 5, which urges national drug organizations, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to expedite research into the potential therapeutic benefits and risks of using marijuana for health purposes, passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support.

Today, women make up less than 25 percent of the tech and computer science workforce. SB 193 establishes a goal of increasing participation in computer science courses by underrepresented groups, including females, minorities, students with disabilities, English language learners, and students whose families are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. SB 193 includes the number of computer science courses or programs offered in each school, as well as the nature of those courses or programs, and the number of instructors required. I am proud to support this bill and hope to see an increase in computer science participation upon its passage. 

In the healthcare space, we’ve been active on several bills including a measure which passed this week to rein in “surprise medical billing.” This occurs when patients receive care — often unwittingly — outside of their insurer’s network and subsequently get a bill for inordinate amounts of money that can potentially bankrupt a family. SB 150 seeks to stop the practice by requiring insurers to cover surprise medical billing. SB 150 would require the state insurance commissioner to establish a database of billed health care service charges, and it would provide a dispute resolution program for medical insurers and providers to work out their differences over these out-of-network charges, not the patient.  While the bill isn’t as aggressive as I’d like, we hope it spares families from getting hit with bills that send them over a financial cliff.

Once again, a bill to criminalize the “doxing” of minors, SB 182, passed the Senate. By definition, doxing is the act of publicly identifying or publishing private information about someone, especially as a form of punishment, intimidation, or revenge. This legislation stems from the students in Northern Kentucky who were doxed following the posting last year of an infamous video of a student with a Native American protester in Washington D.C. The students at that school and even their families have been threatened and harassed by strangers seeking to intimidate them. SB 182 is a commonsense step to address the growing problem of cyber harassment in today’s digital-driven era, and would protect the privacy of minors.

As usual, a number of other bills moved through the Senate this week, including these:

SB 21 allows veterinarians to report the abuse of animals under their care. Currently, veterinarians are prohibited by law from reporting abuse of animals under their care unless they have the permission of the owner or are under a court order. 

SB 80 is the statutory companion to the Marsy’s Law constitutional amendment (SB15), and is identical to the process from 2018 when it last passed. SB 80 lays out various implementation details for Marsy’s Law including expanding the definition of victim to include all felony offenses and the most serious misdemeanors, what happens when there are multiple victims, or who has the power to assert the victim’s rights if a victim is deceased.  These statutory changes are contingent on the ratification of Marsy’s Law by the voters.

SJR 35 directs the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to establish the Task Force on Services for Persons with Brain Injuries.

SB 115 amends the statute regarding the tuition waiver for Kentucky foster or adopted children to include graduate programs and extends the eligibility time period to 10 consecutive or non-consecutive semesters up to age 28.

SB 136 requires home health aides who have not provided services to clients who have Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia to complete four hours of approved dementia training. 

SB 148 Requires individuals applying to claim certain agriculture exceptions to first apply for an agriculture exemption number from the Kentucky Department of Revenue (DOR). The bill further requires that DOR develop a searchable agriculture exemption number database for sellers and retailers to use for verification. 

SB 159 sets regulations for the operation and maintenance of splash parks and to establish their separation from facilities with full-blown swimming pool installations.

Thank you for staying engaged in the legislative process. It is an honor to serve you in Frankfort and I welcome your questions and comments about these issues or any other public policy issue, As always, please call me toll-free at 1-800-372-7181, email me at Whitney.Westerfield@LRC.ky.gov.

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Note: Senator Whitney Westerfield (R-Hopkinsville) represents the 3rd District including Christian, Logan, and Todd counties. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Westerfield also serves as a member on the Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee; the Agriculture Committee; the Capital Planning Advisory Board; the Natural Resources and Energy Committee; the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee; the Program Review and Investigations Committee; the Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee; the Public Assistance Reform Task Force, and as a liaison member of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary. For a high-resolution .jpeg of Senator Westerfield, please visit https://legislature.ky.gov/Legislators%20Full%20Res%20Images/senate103.jpg

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Fighting Drug Abuse

Our partners in law enforcement continue to discover new synthetics and dangerous, experimental chemical compounds being created and abused, threatening Kentucky families. However, we remain vigilant for necessary changes to the law to protect against these substances.

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Week In Review - March 1

FRANKFORT – With only eight legislative days left, the 2013 General Assembly Session has come to a major turning point. As I have reported in the past, Kentucky faces an immense unfunded liability in our public employee pension system. Senate Bill 2, a product of a bipartisan, bicameral task force that heard from stakeholders, retirement experts, and independent researchers, was drafted to protect tax-payers as well as current employees’ and retirees’ retirement from insolvency, passed the Senate in an overwhelming bipartisan vote. (SB 2 does not apply to teachers’ retirement and would not impact pensions for current employees and retirees.) The House of Representatives removed any structural changes to the strained system and proposed to pay for it with revenues from expanded lottery sales, Keno, and Instant Racing instead of discussing this part during the normal budget process of 2014. They refuse to discuss the bill with us in conference committee if we don’t accept their flawed financial plan. The time for gotcha politics is over; we must have a sober discussion about this very important issue. Bipartisan task forces have worked before on unemployment insurance and corrections reform. The Senate is still working and we want bipartisan consensus. Structural changes can be made now to the pension system that will strengthen the entire fund. We are hopeful that the House Leadership will come to the table on this issue that affects all Kentuckians. The Senate is also doing what we can to put our own house in order. Senate Bill 7 seeks to close the loophole in the state retirement system that had allowed some legislators to significantly increase their state pensions. Incidentally, Senate Bill 2 directs that any new legislators must be in the regular state employee system. Both these bills together work to make sure that state employees are treated similarly whether you work in the Senate or on a state road.

In other news, the Senate continued working on other bills involving elections, gun rights, and education.  Voting is at the foundation of our democracy.  Candidates come and go, but the process by which we elect our leaders lives on and must be protected.  While each vote cast is equal, those cast by America's bravest seem to be more sacred.  Generations of men and women serving on battle lines across the globe have protected our freedom to vote, yet their own votes are delayed and possibly uncounted. Senate Bill 1, which I co-sponsored, takes a substantial step toward making the voting process easier for military and those Kentuckians living abroad.  Electronically transmitting the ballot gets the ballot in the hands of those voters earlier so it can be filled out and returned on a timely basis. The bill also establishes a group to study the feasibility and security of electronically returning the ballots, which is a goal I hope we can achieve soon. Right now, the county clerks are concerned that the integrity of the ballot and the anonymity of the voter may be compromised if transmitted via email, fax or the web.

Senate Bill 55 will move the election date of constitutional officers to presidential election years. This has two benefits: it greatly increases voter participation because more people vote in presidential years and it has the bonus attribute of saving both local and state governments millions statewide by not having to hold off-year elections.

We also passed two bills protecting the right to bear arms.  Senate Bill 129 protects our Second Amendment rights by clarifying that the federal government cannot encroach on Kentuckians’ right to bear arms by limiting the reach of new federal regulations. This bill also takes a stand for our rights under the Tenth Amendment which states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."  Senate Bill 150 makes it easier to obtain a concealed-carry license by eliminating the residency requirement.  Applicants seeking the license must still go thought the required training course on firearm safety and related statutes.

We have several programs in place to help kids who may not necessarily learn in the traditional manner or need more help than their peers to understand their lessons. But there are also students who are motivated and prepared enough to want to continue pushing themselves and these children need our support too. Senate Bill 61 would allow for early graduation for qualified students who meet set requirements.  Senate Bill 64, sponsored by Sen. Stan Humphries, rewards students who work to graduate early by allowing them to access their full KEES funding.

Finally, I passed House Bill 8 and House Bill 9 from my Judiciary Committee this week. Both bills, sponsored by Rep. Tilley, are good pieces of legislation I was glad to advance. HB 9 provides legal protections to people trying to escape from violent relationships; HB 8 continues Kentucky's great work toward fighting synthetic drugs which continue to plague our communities.

We are entering the time period in Session when the House and the Senate will start discussing differences on bills that have passed both chambers. There is still time to contact me with any concerns or questions or comments. You can do so by leaving a message for me or any legislator toll free at 1-800-372-7181, by calling my Frankfort office directly at (502) 564-8100, or by emailing me here.  By logging on the General Assembly's website you can read the bills and see our schedules.  I also encourage you to bookmark this site and follow me on Twitter @KyWhitney!

 

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