In the Kentucky General Assembly, the majority party typically is given the first five bill slots to use for their top priorities for that session. This doesn’t mean that those bills will automatically pass, but it does mean that the majority leadership in that chamber has decided that these are the issues they care about the most. Note that “care about the most” could be to address a need of the Commonwealth, to make some sort of political statement, to take care of a certain constituency, or to affect the balance of political power in some way.
Here, then, are the top five bills in each chamber, plus an extra bill. All of these have already had their first reading on the first day of the session. Three readings are required, so all of these could pass the first chamber by Friday. The descriptions are summaries of the summaries. You can go to the LRC Legislative Record page to read the bills and see what action has been taken.
House priority bills
- HB1 – Allows businesses and schools to stay open during the COVID state of emergency if they follow guidelines; provide guidelines for visitation at long-term care facilities during the COVID-19 state of emergency; retroactive to March 6, 2020.
- HB2 – Allow AG to “seek injunctive relief” against abortion providers without having to be asked to do so by Health and Family Services
- HB3 – Move cases involving constitutional challenges to statutes, regulations, etc. out of Franklin Circuit Court and into a special three-judge court
- HB4 – Remove required ending dates of legislative sessions from the state Constitution; allow legislature to extend its session by 10 days repeatedly, but not past December 31
- HB5 – Gives legislature oversight of governor’s reorganizations of boards and commissions
Senate priority bills
- SB1 – Limit governor’s executive orders to 30 days unless approved by GA; same for administrative regulations
- SB2 – Limit administrative regulations to 30 days, including ones requiring quarantine
- SB3 – Move Agriculture Development Board from governor’s office and put in Department of Agriculture
- SB4 – (not filed yet)
- SB5 – Provide liability protection for owners of premises during an emergency, retroactive to March 6, 2020
- SB9 – Require medical providers to take care of a “born alive” infant
We will have our bill trackers up in the next day or two, so you can use them to track bills including key legislation.
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