No Man's Land....That's the most adequate way to explain where HB 439 (with amendment) resides currently...With only 2 legislative days left in session.  The State legislature will reconvene on April 14 and 15 after the 10 day veto session for the Governor.  But those two days are slotted for "concurrence only", which means they will consider ONLY bills which have been through conference committees (combined committees assigned to work out differences on bills such as budget bills, etc.).

HB 439 as amended, passed both the House and Senate Judiciary committees independently, received it's first and second readings in the Senate, and was assigned to the Rules Committee (standard procedure for ALL bills).  Once a bill goes to Rules, they have 5 consecutive working days (days they are in session) to place it on the orders of the day for it's 3rd reading, debate, and vote.  This is according to Senate Rule #41 of the Senate's rules of conduct.  Unfortunately, due to their inability to get to work on other, more pressing business until too late in this year's session, they had to recess for the 10 day veto window early and save their last two working days until after the window, because Kentucky law requires them to be done by April 15th.  I went back and counted from the day after it was sent to Rules, (March 24th), and they were in session a total of..... 4 days...

Sad, that no one has the courage to have taken up this bill in less than the alloted time and passed it out for it's 3rd reading and vote in the Senate.  From someone that I spoke with who has direct knowledge, the lobbyists for the MPAA were in the Senators' ears EVERY DAY against the bill that would have simply required a study.  Apparently, $10,000 a month lobbyists (for a total of $20,000, the 3rd month report will be online soon showing $30k was spent) are FAR more important than the 647,000 people with a hearing loss in Kentucky, and the leadership and Rules Committee members are far too pusillanimous to look out for the mostly rural residents this bill would have benefitted.  AGAIN...

Time and time again, our leadership demonstrates a total lack of respect or capacity to care for the many rural Kentuckians they are paid to represent.  And big money lobbyists rule the day once again.  For the 30k they spent on lobbyists, as many as 10 theaters potentially could have been made accessible to captioned movies for the deaf and hard of hearing in Kentucky.  Obviously money well spent, huh?  Especially from an industry that claims this bill would bankrupt them.  The battle is not over, the war not yet won by the MPAA and theater owners, do not fear that.  I will continue, until these theaters are accessible to ALL of us.

Before I close, I'd like to give out some thanks to those who supported this bill along the way.  Specifically, Committee Chairs John Tilley and Tom Jensen, committee members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, sponsors Leslie Combs and Ray Jones, and other co-sponsors who joined along the way.  Your capacity to be fair and open-minded and considerate of ALL residents of Kentucky, not just the well-heeled and well-financed, will be remembered.

Eddie