Kentucky lawmakers supported these 13 bills. But they didn’t pass before the veto period
Almost as noteworthy as the priority bills Kentucky’s General Assembly sends to the governor’s desk each year are the ones that don’t quite make the cut.
The GOP-led Senate and House of Representatives sent dozens of bills to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear last week on a range of topics, including college and university tenure, gender-affirming health care restrictions for transgender Kentuckians, abortion, an open records crackdown and changes to Medicaid.
But even more bills were left on the cutting room floor.
Lawmakers could still choose to pass some of these measures when they reconvene for two days later this month to override vetoes.
But because of time constraints — the session adjourns for the year on March 28 — the legislature loses its ability to override any vetoes from Beshear after that point.
Here are 13 bills that had some traction within the Republican caucus, but weren’t passed before the veto period deadline.
House Bill 16: Make water fluoridation optional
House Bill 16 from Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, would remove the 1950s-era statewide mandate for drinking water systems to be fluoridated, instead wresting control of that decision to the local “governing body of a water system.”
Hart’s bill won approval from a House Health Services Committee on Feb. 20 and later passed the full House, but it never received votes in the Senate.
Though the bill would lift the mandate for fluoridating water systems rather than mandate fluoride be removed, it’s a proposal rooted in a belief that fluoride exposure is harmful to children and adults, even in trace amounts.
But experts, including health care providers, said fear over trace amounts of fluoride water were rooted in misinformation; Kentucky fluoridates its water at 0.7 milligrams, an “optimal” level, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
De-fluoridating the state’s water systems will lead to increased levels of tooth decay, particularly in children, disproportionately impacting people with limited access to reliable dental care, they warned.
Hart has filed seven bills relating to fluoridation since 2018. Overall, the Kentucky GOP has filed a dozen bills in the last seven years to lift the fluoridation mandate, making Kentucky one of dozens of states that have moved to de-fluoridate its water systems in recent years.
Roughly 72% of the U.S. population with public water drinking access in 2022 received fluoridated drinking water, according to the CDC.
Senate Bill 75: Lower the age to conceal carry guns
Senate Bill 75 from freshman Sen. Aaron Reed, R-Shelbyville, proposes lowering the age someone in Kentucky can legally conceal carry a gun from 21 to 18.
Reed told lawmakers his bill is inspired by having an 18-year-old daughter and wanting to give her the ability to carry a gun for protection.
“The question before us is simple,” Reed told fellow senators March 11. “Should responsible, law-abiding 18-year-olds be allowed to exercise their Second Amendment rights to self defense? Unequivocally yes.”
The Senate passed the bill that day, with some Republicans voting against it. It was later poised to get votes in the House, but it didn’t before the veto deadline.
Lowering the age one can conceal carry in Kentucky is, at this point, a perennial effort from Republicans. Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, has filed a bill to this end each year she’s been in office, including this year, in House Bill 139.
Senate Bill 8: Expanding the Public Service Commission
If passed before the veto period deadline, Senate Bill 8 might have been the most important bill of the session. Sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, it would have expanded the Public Service by two members, for a total of five members.
It proposes giving the state auditor — currently Republican Allison Ball — the power to appoint two additional regulators.
The bill, which did not move out of committee, was notable for both its powerful sponsor and position as a “priority” bill.
When he filed the bill in February, Stivers said he was displeased with the retirement of coal-fired power plants and the fact that the three current commission members, all appointed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, have no Republicans in their ranks.
Among the most important regulating bodies, the commission, whose members are currently appointed by the governor, regulates Kentucky’s water and utility providers both massive and small. It’s also charged with protecting Kentucky utility customers and vetting power generation plans, utility sales and rate hikes among other things.
Senate Bill 9: Give teachers paid maternity leave
Senate Bill 9 from Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, proposed giving the state’s more than 40,000 public school teachers up to 30 days of paid maternity leave per year by 2030, and would’ve mandated changes to the Teacher’s Retirement System regarding sick leave.
Kentucky law doesn’t currently provide for paid maternity leave, meaning teachers must rely on using sick or other forms of leave after giving birth.
As more employers, public and private, move to offer paid maternity leave options, Kentucky’s public school system has become an outlier, the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy said in December.
Higdon’s bill also caps the amount of sick leave for faculty and administrators to 12 total days per year. Districts can offer more sick leave to employees, but covering additional associated pensions costs would fall to the districts, rather than the state, as it has in the past.
The bill made it through the Senate but was never voted on in the House.
House Bill 65: Ten Commandments in public schools
Three bills and resolutions were filed this session to permanently display the Christian Ten Commandments in public spaces, but only one of them can withstand a veto from Beshear.
Delivered to the governor’s desk on Friday, House Joint Resolution 15 from Rep. Shane Baker, R-Somerset, would place a permanent granite monument displaying the Ten Commandments on the Kentucky Capitol grounds in Frankfort.
Two other Republican bills to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms did not receive final passage by Friday: House Bill 65 from Irvington Rep. Josh Calloway, and House Bill 116 from Morehead Rep. Richard White.
Calloway’s bill, which never got a committee hearing, would require all elementary and secondary schools to display a “durable, permanent copy of the Ten Commandments” on the wall of every classroom that’s 16-by-20 inches. And along with it, a notation that says, the “secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States.”
White’s bill would make clear each school has the option to display the commandments anywhere in a school building.
Each of these proposals is bolstered by a recent nonbinding opinion from Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman, who said it’s likely constitutional that the state mandate all K-12 classrooms display a copy of the Ten Commandments, and that the display of the commandments on Capitol grounds would also likely pass constitutional muster.
Kentucky versions of DOGE, MAHA
Republicans filed four resolutions — two in the House, two in the Senate — to bring the DOGE and MAHA movement to the Bluegrass state, but neither passed by the veto deadline.
Taking cues from Republican President Donald Trump and his administration, some in the GOP wanted to establish a Kentucky version of the Department of Government Efficiency and a task force to implement a state version of Make America Healthy Again.
Senate Bill 257 from Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, proposes creating a Kentucky Office of Government Efficiency in order to “streamline operations, eliminate waste, and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively.”
In a similar effort in the House from representatives John Hodgson of Fisherville, and TJ Roberts of Burlington, House Concurrent Resolution 50 would form a new 10-member task force: the Kentucky Discipline of Government Efficiency, or KY DOGE.
Its stated goal is to “enhance efficiency, cut waste, and prioritize essential services, ensuring Kentuckians’ tax dollars are used wisely in our 2026 Budget,” Roberts said. It passed out of committee but was not voted on in the House.
Tichenor’s version, which gives the state auditor considerably more power to audit and police state agency operations, passed the Senate but has yet to get votes in the House.
Using the momentum of Trump’s MAHA movement — and his executive order forming the Make America Health Again Commission — the Kentucky GOP proposed two measures: House Concurrent Resolution 41 from Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, and Senate Concurrent Resolution 61 from Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, to “explore ways to integrate the principles of the Make America Healthy Again movement to improve health outcomes of Kentuckians,” according to the language of both resolutions, which are identical.
There was a government accountability aspect of one bill that Roberts referred to as “Kentucky DOGE,” however.
Senate Bill 25, a multi-faceted bill that began as a short bill allowing multi-family housing developments to qualify for a tax exemption, passed both chambers with government accountability language attached to it.
The language requires every Executive Branch cabinet and agency to submit twice-annual reports to the Legislative Research Commission on potential “cost-saving measures,” functions that “could be eliminated,” and “staff positions that could be eliminated” or converted.”
House Speaker David Osborne did not agree with the comparison of the language to DOGE.
“I reject that comparison, quite frankly,” Osborne said. “I think had DOGE not become commonplace language, I don’t think anybody would be thinking about that. But I think, as we have illustrated in budgeting the last several years, we are continuing to try to drill down and find efficiencies throughout state government.”
House Bill 14: Wearable panic alert system in schools
House Bill 14 would allow Kentucky schools the option of equipping staff with “wearable panic alert” buttons to activate in case of an emergency.
Pressing the button sends a signal to local 9-1-1 public safety and emergency responder agencies, notifying them of a school security emergency that authorities would then immediately respond to.
Co-sponsors Bowling Green Republican Rep. Kevin Jackson and Lexington Democratic Rep. Chad Aull said one rendition of the device looks like an I.D. badge on the front but has a silent panic button on the back. Experts said while these devices can be helpful, they should not be relied on as the primary solution for mitigating school violence.
The bill, also called “Alyssa’s Law,” is named for 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, who was among 17 people killed by a shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018.
Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff, testified virtually in favor of the bill during a Feb. 19 House Primary and Secondary Education Committee meeting.
The bill passed unanimously out of the House but has yet to get a hearing in the Senate.
Senate Bill 71: Grant politicians more power to appoint library boards
Senate Bill 71 from Sen. Gary Boswell, R-Owensboro, would give elected county judge-executives more authority to appoint members of public library boards across Kentucky.
Boswell’s reason for filing the bill stems from controversy last year in his district, when the county fiscal court appointed judge executives to fill vacancies on the Daviess County Public Library Board.
Those appointments grew tense after an advocacy group called Citizens for Decency said it discovered more than 200 books it considered inappropriate or “pornographic” on library shelves that covered a range of topics, including LGBTQ identities and racism. The group also protested a gay pride event at the library.
Following this controversy, the citizen group and its supporters lobbied to get a person they supported appointed to the library board and expressed public frustration at another member appointed because he voted in favor of a Fairness Ordinance, which Owensboro tried but failed to adopt in 2020 that would’ve prohibited discrimination based on sexual preference or gender identity.
The bill would’ve given judge executives more power to appoint those board members.
Boswell, who has voiced his support for the citizens group and supported conservative challenges to library materials, wrote in a 2024 letter to the editor in the Owensboro Times: “Just quit putting books with social agendas or that violate community standards out.”
House Bill 44: Anti-choking devices in Kentucky schools
House Bill 44 from Rep. Candy Massaroni, R-Bardstown, would’ve allowed anti-choking devices in K-12 schools, though first-aid experts warn against them.
The bill was named Landon’s Law for 8-year-old Landon McCubbins, who choked to death on a bouncy ball in his Nelson County elementary school classroom in 2022.
Massaroni presented her bill to a committee in February alongside McCubbins’ mother, who said that her son died because emergency protocols, like the Heimlich maneuver, failed her son.
Under Massaroni’s bill, school districts could stock devices like LifeVacs — small, handheld plunger-like devices with fitted face masks — in classrooms and absolve the district of liability if a device is used in a life-saving situation. Massaroni said the devices should not be used in place of the Heimlich maneuver, just in addition to it.
But the effectiveness of LifeVac and other similar anti-choking devices isn’t conclusive, and health agencies warn against widespread distribution of them, as their effectiveness “has not been established,” according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Hospitals, medical experts and first responders across the country, as well as the FDA and the American Red Cross, have outright warned against using them, especially in place of tried-and-true techniques like abdominal and chest thrusts and back blows.
“It’s not clear whether or not they do more harm, and that’s kind of the whole problem,” David Fifer, an associate professor of Emergency Medical Services at Eastern Kentucky University, told the Herald-Leader.
Massaroni’s bill advanced through the House, but it never received votes in the Senate.
Senate Bill 79: Mandate state employees return to in-office work
Senate Bill 79, thanks to a floor amendment from Tichenor, would’ve mandated the roughly 33,000 state government employees to return to in-person work five days a week.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had five years now of broad teleworking across all of our government agencies,” Tichenor told her colleagues on the Senate floor last month. “This is to bring us back to work.”
But Personnel Cabinet Secretary Mary Elizabeth Bailey said the state’s remote and hybrid work schedules grant valuable professional and personal flexibility for government employees and should not be eliminated.
“We believe the current hybrid plan we have is the right mix now. It is similar to what is used by the majority of private businesses in the U.S.,” Bailey wrote in a Feb. 18 letter to state senators.
There also are questions as to whether the legislative branch can dictate how the executive branch manages its workforce and how much extra office space might be needed for everyone to return to the workplace, she said at the time.
Tichenor’s floor amendment would’ve prohibited employees of the state’s executive, legislative and judicial branches from remote “telework” unless a state of emergency has been declared.
Though the Senate advanced the bill, but it stalled in the House.
