KY House Republicans make public assistance reform, human trafficking top priorities
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives announced two of their priorities for the 2020 legislative session Monday, putting their heft behind public assistance reform and preventing human trafficking.
House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said the budget is the biggest priority in the legislative session, but House Bill 1 will attempt to address the “benefit cliff,” where accepting a small increase in pay can result in being abruptly thrown off public benefits, in effect keeping people in poverty. House Bill 2 will address human trafficking.
Neither of the bills have been filed yet.
The House’s priority bills stand in contrast to the priority bills of the Senate, which have focused on contentious political issues, such as banning cities from “sanctuary” immigration policies and requiring photo identification in order to vote.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate took part in a Public Assistance Task Force between the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions to study the issue and the group offered four recommendations.
Osborne said the bill won’t attempt to kick people off public assistance, but will instead attempt to lower barriers for people attempting to get back into the workforce, specifically by helping with health insurance and childcare costs. Osborne said he hoped reform would help Kentucky improve it’s labor-force participation rate. Only 59.3 percent of Kentuckians over the age of 16 are employed or looking for work.
“All too often, people are asked to make decisions about employment based on what is best for their family and it’s unfortunate that they have to consider the effects of public assistance in that particular case,” Osborne said.
House Speaker Pro Tempore David Meade, R-Stanford, said when he talked to people on public assistance, their biggest fear was losing medical coverage. He said the bill will offer specific policies regarding “bridge insurance,” an attempt to make it easier for people to transition from Medicaid to private insurance.
“The one thing that you don’t see in many states is that bridge insurance,” Meade said. “So we believe that we have an outlet that we can do that in order to provide that insurance for them.”
With HB 2, House Majority Caucus Chair Suzanne Miles, R-Owensboro, is working with Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, and Attorney General Daniel Cameron to offer legislation to combat human trafficking. Miles said the bill will attempt to conform state laws with federal laws and will make an effort to increase education and awareness of human trafficking.
“The Kentucky Derby has been a really big issue and we are geographically located in a situation where we are a target for that option,” Miles said. “So there’s several items that we’ll be looking at.”
Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has declared January “Human Trafficking Awareness Month.”
