Bluegrass Politics: KY bills that didn’t make it, veto period, a trip to Pizza Hut

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Alex Acquisto here, greeting you not from the marble halls of the Kentucky Capitol, which at this very moment are empty and silent, except for the scratch-scratch-scratch of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s pen as he signs bills into law.

Not really, but it makes for a good visual. We are officially at the start of the fourth day of the veto period, which means no legislating, just bill signing and vetoing (no vetoes as of writing this Tuesday afternoon, but stay tuned).

Last week was sustained, somewhat organized chaos, as it always is in the final days of a regular session before the veto break, which began at midnight early Saturday. When the clock struck midnight, lawmakers scurried back to their districts, not to return as a full body until Thursday, March 27. The House of Representatives and the Senate will then have exactly two days to override any vetoes from Beshear and pass any remaining bills the governor may find palatable, since any vetoes after that point can’t be overridden by lawmakers.

Just after the clock struck 11 p.m. Friday, Republicans ramrodded through two controversial measures largely aimed at transgender Kentuckians: House Bill 495, which protects the widely discredited practice of conversion therapy and bans Kentucky’s Medicaid program from funding gender-affirming health care for trans adults. Beshear called conversion therapy the “equivalent of torture.”

And Senate Bill 2, to prohibit transgender people incarcerated in the state from accessing gender-affirming health care. There were 67 trans inmates in Kentucky’s jails and prisons an attorney for the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet told lawmakers in January — a population that accounted for less than 1% of the total incarcerated population in Kentucky.

Democrats begged Republicans to change their minds, to no avail.

“We do not need to be spending time at 11 p.m. on the last day of concurrence debating a bill that only hurts Kentuckians,” said Louisville Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni. “It doesn’t do anything to save money. It does not do anything to help providers. It creates liability.”

Lawmakers also passed a last-minute hefty work requirement revision to Kentucky Medicaid. House Bill 695 also includes a provision tying the state more closely to the policy of the federal government and another section limiting Beshear’s administration from making significant changes to the Medicaid program.

In justifying the need for the work requirement to my colleague, Austin Horn, Senate President Robert Stivers said the dining room at his local Pizza Hut was closed on a recent visit because the restaurant couldn’t hire enough people to keep it open. ”People are staying at home because the benefits are so rich it’s a disincentive to work,” said Stivers.

Earlier in the week, the political majority did what they tried but failed to do last year: dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Kentucky’s public colleges and universities.

Also earlier in the week, Republicans amended language Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban to make it easier for doctors to provide abortions to pregnant women with major medical complications, like an ectopic or a molar pregnancy.

Those changes were met with sharp ire from Democrats and reproductive rights advocates, including Planned Parenthood. They accused the GOP of hiding the ball and said the changes — which were drafted with heavy input from the legislative liaison for the Kentucky chapter of the American College of Gynecologist Obstetricians — will actually make it harder for doctors to provide necessary care to their patients.

“Make no mistake: if these bills pass, legislators will be directly responsible for needless suffering and deaths across the commonwealth,” said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

Republicans also managed to pass House Bill 520, which will carve a bigger loophole in Kentucky’s already swiss-cheesy Open Records Act to shield crime incident reports, 911 tapes and other documents from public view at the discretion of police departments.

In addition to these hot-button consequential bills sent to the governor’s desk, here are nine other high-impact bills that could withstand a Beshear veto, compiled by my colleague Austin and me.

And here are 13 bills that had some traction within the GOP but ultimately didn’t make it past the finish line before the veto period.

Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to read our unfolding coverage this week of bills signed in to law and vetoed!

This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM.