FRANKFORT, KY-Today, the League of Women Voters of Kentucky released How Can They Do That? 2026 Challenges to Transparency and Citizen Participation in Kentucky’s Legislative Process. This 2026 report updates and expands the evidence of Kentucky legislative practices that challenge what the League calls the Democracy Principle — We, the people, have a right to participate in decisions that affect us.
The 2026 report has three new features:
- Presented in an interactive format found at lwvky.org/how-can-they-do-that
- Highlights two areas of improvement in legislative processes
- Reports on the use of piggyback bills
Areas of improvement
LWVKY analysis shows improvement in two of the processes we have monitored since 2023:
- Committee meetings: During the 2026 session, committees held 90% of meetings at scheduled times (compared to 79% in 2024). The number of “surprise” meetings declined from 47 in 2024 to 28 in 2026.
- Journal of Proceedings: In 2023, the most recent published journals were from the 2019 session. As of the interim 2026 session, the published journals included 2025’s regular session.
Continued use of fast-track maneuvers
The analysis of the 2026 session shows the House and Senate used fast-track maneuvers to pass about one-fifth of all bills that became law. This reflects a trend of increased fast-tracking since 1998, when only about one percent of bills that passed used fast-track maneuvers. In 2026, the Senate passed 21 percent of bills with fast-track maneuvers and the House used these maneuvers to pass 20 percent of bills.
Fast-track maneuvers that compress the timeline and limit public awareness and input are as follows:
- Early readings: Kentucky’s Constitution requires that every bill must have a committee vote followed by readings on three separate days before the full House or Senate can vote on it. But readings held before committee action rush floor votes and prevent public input.
- Last-minute committee substitutes are amendments made during committee meetings that replace most or all the language in the bill. The substitute versions are not made public until after the committee votes, eliminating the opportunity for public comment.
- Same-day floor votes: Bills with early readings and committee substitutes can move to the House or Senate floor for a vote within hours, with little to no time for public input between the committee decision and the final chamber vote.
- Free conference committees, including both House and Senate members, are used when the chambers fail to agree on bill wording. They can make substantive changes to the original bills, which are then voted on the day they are reported.
Undemocratic tactics also limit public participation, as explained below:
- Loss of prefiled bills (a continuing concern): Until 2022, legislators routinely prefiled bills before sessions began. Kentuckians could review these bills online to prepare for the upcoming session — a meaningful window for public engagement. In 2022, House Bill 10 eliminated the prefiling process. The bill’s sponsor pledged to create a new webpage for draft legislation. No such webpage has been created.
- A Shell Bill is a bill with little or no substantive language that can serve as a placeholder for more substantive language to be inserted after the deadline for filing bills. When last minute language is added and the bill progresses rapidly to a vote, the people of Kentucky have no time to understand and give input. In 2010, 9 shell bills were filed in the House and 6 were filed in the Senate. In 2026, 82 shell bills were filed in the House and 63 in the Senate.
- Committee meetings held at irregular times: House and Senate Rules require standing committees to schedule and hold weekly meetings to transact pending business. When those committees cancel their scheduled meetings and then hold meetings at irregular times not on the public schedule, it becomes harder for members of the public to observe and participate in those meetings.
- Inconsistent access to records of legislative action: The Kentucky Constitution requires that each chamber publish a Journal of Proceedings as its official record. Publication of both Journals lag months to years after a session concludes, although we have seen recent improvements. In addition, standing committees do not consistently keep and publish minutes of their meetings during the session. In 2026, of 39 House and Senate committees and subcommittees, only six posted meeting minutes on the legislative website. Without consistent access to records, public participation in the lawmaking process is hampered by incomplete information about past and proposed legislation.
- Piggyback bills (reported by the League for the first time in 2026): A piggyback bill is substantial proposed legislation that later becomes attached to a different bill, sometimes on a different topic. Although House and Senate rules prohibit piggyback bills, legislators combine bills to rush them through at the end of the session, making such bills unclear, causing confusion, and preventing public input.
- In the 2010s, about 30 piggyback bills appeared in each 60‑day session. That number dropped by more than half toward the end of the decade and into the early 2020s. But in 2026, the number jumped back up to nearly 30, reversing years of progress.
Major Recommendations: The General Assembly must strengthen citizens’ participation in our democracy. It can do that in multiple ways:
- Hold bill readings in order: Require the 3 bill readings after a standing committee sends a bill to the full chamber — not before.
- Provide committee substitutes online 24 hours in advance of the committee meeting where they will be considered.
- Pause before floor votes: Allow at least 24 hours between any committee or free conference committee action and a floor vote on a bill.
- Restore prefiling: Bring back the prefiling process so the public can review draft legislation before sessions begin.
- File genuine bills only: Limit last-minute tactics such as filing shell bills or piggybacking. Avoid shell bills by filing substantive bills before filing deadlines. Follow both chambers’ existing legislative rules avoiding piggyback bills.
- Transact most committee business during regularly scheduled meeting times. Announce any additional committee meetings in the daily legislative calendar published the night before.
- Publish records promptly: Release Journals of Proceedings within weeks of adjournment, and publish accurate, complete, digital, and freely available records online for each committee meeting.
“Kentucky lawmakers work for the people of Kentucky,” said Jennifer A. Jackson, M.D., LWVKY president. “Although our latest transparency review shows areas of improvement, decades of expedited lawmaking tactics continue to limit participation. We must remain committed to ensuring that Kentuckians play a meaningful role in shaping the laws that affect them.”
The report, How Can They Do That: 2026 Challenges to Transparency and Citizen Participation in Kentucky’s Legislative Process, is available at lwvky.org/how-can-they-do-that. Appendices with methods, sources and data for each challenge are also available at that website.
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