Amend KRS 446.350 to define "government" and "substantially burden"; outline relief that may be sought if statute is violated; apply to laws adopted before or after enaction of this statute; include severability clause; waive sovereign, governmental, and qualified immunity.
Amend KRS 164.295 to permit Murray State University to offer doctor's degrees required for professional practice and licensure in veterinary medicine.
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; prohibit a public postsecondary education institution from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual's religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from influencing the composition of the student body or scholarship recipients on the basis of religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from implementing a student housing assignment plan on the basis of religion, race, color, or national origin with designated exceptions; from expending any resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the promotion of discriminatory topics, or bias incident investigations; from soliciting statements on an applicant's experience with or views on religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from requiring a course or training on diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory concepts as a program requirement; and from permitting credit from a course dedicated to the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory concepts to count towards the total number of credits required for a degree or certificate, or disseminating or profiting from any research, work product, or material that promotes or justifies discriminatory concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion; establish exclusions; require each governing board of a public postsecondary education institution to amend the institution's policy on nondiscrimination to include a clause on ideological neutrality that prohibits institutional discrimination on the basis of an individual's political or social ideology; prohibit a public postsecondary education institution from requiring or encouraging any individual to endorse or condemn a specific political or social ideology or make any inquiry into the political or social ideology of students, faculty, and staff or from providing preferential or prejudicial consideration or treatment to an individual on the basis of that individual's actual or perceived political or social ideology; prohibit the Council on Postsecondary Education from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual's religion, race, sex, color, or national origin or from expending any resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory topics; establish exclusions for legal compliance; require each governing board of a public postsecondary education institution to ensure compliance with specific sections of this Act no later than June 30, 2024; require the council and institutions to collaborate on a standardized procedure to consider denying transfer credit earned in courses dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and to develop data collection and reporting methods; authorize the Attorney General to bring an action for a writ of mandamus to compel the council or a public postsecondary education institution to comply; create a cause of action to permit a qualified individual to file a civil action against council or a public postsecondary education institution for injunctive relief and damages arising from a violation of this Act; waive sovereign and governmental immunity; prohibit retaliation; require each public postsecondary education institution to submit and publish a certified annual report on governmentally mandated discrimination to the Legislative Research Commission by October 1 each year; provide that a public postsecondary education institution or the council cannot claim a federal, state, judicial, contractual, or accreditation mandate as a defense to a civil action filed under this Act unless the policy, practice, or procedure upon which the complaint is founded is listed and clearly and accurately described in the public institution's annual report on governmentally mandated discrimination; require the council to develop and publish an annual assessment to evaluate intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at public postsecondary education institutions; require each institution to annually distribute the assessment to all students, faculty, and staff and publish the results; require each public postsecondary education institution to provide the Personnel Cabinet and State Treasurer the name, job title, duty station, salary or wages, and amount of any contracted severance or other form of post-employment compensation of each employee of the institution by the twentieth day of each month beginning January 1, 2025, and to post its itemized annual budget; amend KRS 164.020 to prohibit the Council on Postsecondary Education from approving a degree, certificate, or diploma program that is not aligned with Section 2 of this Act; direct the Council on Postsecondary Education to consider alignment with Section 2 of this Act when considering the elimination of an existing program; direct each public postsecondary education institution and the Council on Postsecondary Education to discontinue designated programs and follow designated procedures when implementing this Act; provide specific instructions for public postsecondary education institutions and the Council on Postsecondary Education to follow in implementing this Act; direct public postsecondary education institutions and the council to submit a report on implementation of this Act; require public postsecondary education institutions to submit a series of reports on historical employment data for diversity, equity, and inclusion employees; EFFECTIVE, in part, February 1, 2025; EMERGENCY.
Amend KRS 161.030 to specify authority of Education Professional Standards Board over educators hired by public schools only; amend KRS 199.894 to define "learning pods" and exclude them from the definition of "child-care center" and "family child-care home"; amend KRS 194A.381 to exclude learning pods from certain youth camp requirements.
Amend KRS 220.510 to prohibit a sanitation district from imposing any fee, tax, surcharge, or other charge for the provision of service to a property unless the property is connected to a sanitary sewer owned or maintained by the sanitation district or there is an approved plan to connect the property to a sanitary sewer owned or maintained by the sanitation district within two years, the property discharges storm water to a storm sewer or storm water improvement owned or operated by the sanitation district and if it discharges to a new improvement or facility that it not be more than one mile from the nearest property boundary, the person responsible for the charge has agreed to the charges in writing with the sanitation district that provides the service; amend KRS 220.515 to conform; provide that the Act may be cited as the Ensuring Fair Sewer Charges Act.
Urge Governor Andy Beshear to express support for Governor Greg Abbott and the State of Texas in their efforts to secure the border.
Urge President Joe Biden to defend the southern border of the United States.
Amend KRS 56.580 to prohibit closing portions of Capital Avenue in Frankfort; provide exceptions for emergency personnel.
Amend KRS 150.170 to remove the requirement that resident owners of farmlands must own five or more acres of land in order to be exempt from sport hunting and sport fishing license requirements when hunting or fishing on their own farmlands; EMERGENCY.
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 48 to prohibit a public agency or any other entity created by an act of the General Assembly from using public funds for lobbying activity or to employ or enter into a contract with a lobbyist; define terms; exempt public agency employees who perform lobbying activities as part of their fiduciary duties; create a new section of KRS Chapter 61 to prohibit a public agency from using public funds for lobbying activity or to employ or contract with a lobbyist; define terms; exempt public agency employees who perform lobbying activities as part of their fiduciary duties; create new sections of KRS 6.601 to 6.849 to permit a person to file a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission if a public agency or entity created by an act of the General Assembly is using public funds to hire a lobbyist or for lobbying activity; require the commission to transfer a complaint to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission if the alleged violator is an employee of the executive branch of state government; require a public agency to report to the Legislative Ethics Commission if the agency procures a contract with a legislative agent to engage in federal lobbying or uses federal funds to employ or procure a contract with a legislative agent or as part of compensation or salary of an employee to engage in lobbying activity on behalf of the agency; require the report to be filed within 30 days of the decision to engage in federal lobbying activity or use federal funds to engage in lobbying activity; require all public agencies to submit to the Auditor of Public Accounts and State Treasurer a list of all contracts they have procured with a legislative agency for all types of lobbying activity, regardless of the source of funds, by June 30 each year; allow the Attorney General, Commonwealth's attorney, county attorney, or their designee to investigate violations; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to prohibit public postsecondary education institutions from employing or contracting with a lobbyist or using public funds to employ or contract with a lobbyist; allow a president of the public postsecondary institution to lobby on behalf of the institution in his or her fiduciary capacity; amend KRS 6.611 to include as lobbying any public agency to hire or procure a contract with a public relations, media, or social media company to indirectly promote, advocate, or oppose passage of any legislation or action taken by the General Assembly, the Governor, the secretary of any cabinet or any staff members; amend KRS 6.691 to allow the Legislative Ethics Commission to issue a fine of not less than $2,000 but not more than $10,000 to any public agency that uses public funds for lobbying purposes; amend KRS 6.945 to provide that the lobbying restrictions are not affected by the requirements of Section 1 or 2 of this Act; amend KRS 61.990 to provide that an officer or employee of a public agency who intentionally violates the lobbying restrictions shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor for the first offense, and a Class D felony for any subsequent offenses; amend KRS 11A.201 to conform; provide that the Act may be cited as the Bye Bye BULL Act.
