KENTUCKY — The 2022 Kentucky General Assembly is underway for its annual legislative session that runs until April 14.

This year is important because since it is an even calendar year, that means this year’s session lasts for 60 days instead of 30 days.

Angie Hatton (D) of Whiteburg is the Minority House Whip in the Kentucky House of Representatives. She was first elected to the legislature in 2016 and represents the 94th House District, which includes Letcher and parts of Pike counties.

With Hatton's Minority Whip leadership position in the House Democrats, she is mainly responsible for counting heads and rounding up party members for votes and quorum calls, and Hatton occasionally stands in for Minority House Leader in their absence.

During this In Focus Kentucky interview, Rep. Hatton comments on a variety of topics and issues being debated during the General Assembly session. 

"Well you know, it's been a really unusual session in the way we rolled out our budget in the house was different than usual. We did that early in the session, rather than waiting until later in the session. And then we had a couple of delays, one for illness and one for a snowstorm, it feels like it's kind of a kind of a slow start, and it feels a little different pace than usual," explains Hatton.

She said there are more things she'd like to have done at this point in the session.

"It feels like there's things that need to get done that haven't been done, but I wish we'd hurry up and do. Then other things that don't need to be rushed that we definitely could be taking our time with, like anything that we're doing around public pensions or our budget or things that affect a large number of people shouldn't be a bill that we see the committee sub, the night before, the day of heard in committee with only one day's notice and then heard on the floor that same day. We need the three day committee posting rule like we used to have so that if people have input, they have time to make plans to get up to Frankfort and do it," adds Hatton.

You can watch the full In Focus segment above.