Less than five weeks before the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly convenes, a report from the progressive leaning League of Women Voters of Kentucky blasts the legislature for pushing bills so fast.

Kentuckians often don't know what's in the bills.

Among the complaints, according to the league, bills can go from a committee to the House or Senate floor all in the same day, and bills can be changed and voted on before lawmakers have time to read what's changed?

The report out yesterday says this is happening more now than ever.

The league also offers some recommendations to stop it.

Our Toby Gibbs has more from the report.

You don't act sneaky if you know what you're doing is right.

The report's main focus is on the so called fast tracking of bills.

The league says some bills go through the process so quickly.

Kentuckians have little or no time to offer input or criticism.

And the report says this happens much more frequently than it did 25 years ago.

Then it happened 5% of the time.

Now, the report says in 2022, it happened one third of the time in the House and almost one fourth of the time in the Senate.

I kept saying to myself, What has happened here?

I kept wondering how it was that things that were going really quickly went through processes that I didn't think were exactly the same steps that I'd witnessed before.

I was not alone.

There were several other people who felt the same way that somehow legislation was being a little bit more rushed than what it used to be.

And that more importantly, citizens were not able to see or read that legislation as it rushed through.

One of my favorite quotes is a story from a legislator who said, you know, I've been given bills that are that they're so fresh that the paper's still hot and we're trying to vote on them.

But that is the way it is.

And the league says once a bill is introduced, sometimes it can be changed so quickly it catches everyone off guard.

I had prepared comments on the original bill and was to have 5 minutes to address the committee.

On the day of my testimony, a substitute bill was introduced that we had not seen also as several of us were invited to speak.

We were told we had one minute, which caused a major adjustment in my statement.

One of the General Assembly's newer lawmakers, Representative Lindsey Burke, a Democrat from Lexington, said she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

I was just shocked by how cavalier we were when it came to following the rules.

That rules could be suspended at any moment, that we would rush legislation at the last second.

And I had to stand up on the floor at one point to say, this is wrong.

We have a process and we're not following it.

I believe that process matters.

I know that the people in my district are having trouble being represented in Frankfurt because they want to participate.

But we're making it really difficult.

The league is recommending changes.

The league wants one full day after a committee is finished with a bill before a floor vote in the House or Senate on that bill.

The league recommends the required three readings of a bill to occur on three separate days.

Once the committee has sent a bill to the House or Senate and when a House-Senate conference committee changes a bill, the league wants a one day delay before the House or Senate can vote on the revised version of that bill.

The League of Women Voters of Kentucky says it will present its report to members of the Kentucky General Assembly.

Fast tracked or not, the sheer number of bills that come across lawmakers desks might surprise you.

In the last 30 days session, both chambers introduced a total of 876 bills with 176 becoming law.

That was during a 30 day session.

The 2024 General Assembly this time will last 60 days and is a budget cycle that kicks off on January 2nd.