KCC Week 11 Recap- General Assembly 2026
Read our full lists and make your calls—Particularly on our “Strong Support” and “Strong Oppose” bills!
Please call the legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 (Monday-Friday 7AM-6PM) to express your views on these bills. You may also email your legislators if the phone lines are closed.
This week lawmakers moved, and you improved, key bills just in time
There are only six more working days before the “Veto” period begins. We want to thank all our members and supporters for making their calls. Your work has improved several troublesome bills:
Senate Bill 100, addressing the state’s Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) passed the Senate, and has been moving through the House—but this week a House Committee Substitute was filed that continued to improve the bill. Where the original bill included widespread exemptions from disclosures via the Kentucky Open Records Act, the House Committee Substitute now limits the exemption to now only preclude information, records, data, files, documents, or correspondence submitted by a utility to the commission that the utility has designated as confidential business information from disclosure to the extent that open disclosure would permit an unfair commercial advantage to competitors of the utility that submitted the information. Still, the bill should not allow the utilities to unilaterally designate their own documents confidential. The bill has already passed through House Natural Resources, with two readings— making its way for final passage in the House.
Senate Bill 8 was the bill addressing several reforms to the Public Service Commission, and would have placed strict limits on who could intervene in Public Service Commission cases. Thanks to your calls, the bill was improved by eliminating provisions that eliminated the heightened and arbitrary intervention standards and the prohibition on anyone other than the AG representing residential customers in the original bill. Additional House Amendments further changed provisions that would have attached the PSC to the Auditor of public accounts and would have given the Auditor appointment power. The bill has passed the Senate and was favorable in House Natural Resources, with first and second readings, and is on its way to final passage in the House.
On The Governor’s Desk
We want to thank everyone for their calls to stop Senate Bill 199. This is the bill that would make it more difficult for a plaintiff to recover from a pesticide manufacturer for a "failure to warn." While it was amended in the House to further limit the immunity of chemical companies from lawsuits, this continues to be a troublesome bill. This bill has now been delivered to the Governor. Contact the Governor and ask him to “Veto” this bill. See video below for Rep. Kim Holloway’s riveting testimony on this bill.
Idle Bills now Picking up Speed
At this point in the session, bills that had not been moving are now becoming active. One of our “strong oppose” bills, Senate Bill 195, is a tort reform bill which would make recovery for environmental harm more difficult in Kentucky, introducing several significant changes to civil causes of action, primarily focusing on motor vehicle safety, insurance claims, timber trespass, consumer protection, public works contractor liability, medical malpractice, and comparative fault standards. The bill sat idle since its filing, but began moving on Monday of this week, where it has already passed the Senate (31-5 with SCS1) and is now in House Judiciary: Call to oppose!
Budget Needs Calls to Support Land Conservation
The state senate has now passed its version of the budget, and also passed a bill that would spend $810 million from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund on one-time appropriations. Previous versions of these bills have already passed in the House, meaning that this work will soon go to the conference committee.
What the $810 million would be spent on was not specified other than to say that it would be in the following broad categories:
Water and sewer project pools
Economic Development investments
Smaller one-time local infrastructure projects and investments
Now is the time to weigh in with state legislators and ask them to “Please support another strategic investment in the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund as part of HB 900.”
Outreach to any legislators is helpful and appreciated, and especially if you are represented by or have a relationship with the following lawmakers in leadership roles:
Senator President Robert Stivers,[robert.stivers@kylegislature.gov]; Senator David Givens, david.givens@kylegislature.gov]; Senator Max Wise, [max.wise@kylegislature.gov]; Senator Robby Mills, robby.mills@kylegislature.gov ]; Senator Mike Wilson, mike.wilson@kylegislature.gov ]; House Speaker David Osborne, david.osborne@kylegislature.gov ]; Senator Chris McDaniel, chris.mcdaniel@kylegislature.gov ]; Senator Amanda Mays Bledsoe, amanda.maysbledsoe@kylegislature.gov ], Representative David Meade, david.meade@kylegislature.gov ]; Representative Steven Rudy, steven.rudy@kylegislature.gov ]; Representative Suzanne Miles, suzanne.miles@kylegislature.gov ]; Representative Jason Nemes, jason.nemes@kylegislature.gov ]; Representative Jason Petrie, jason.petrie@kylegislature.gov ]; Representative Adam Bowling, adam.bowling@kylegislature.gov ]; Representative Josh Bray, josh.bray@kylegislature.gov ].
More about the Budget from WKMS: Kentucky Senate quickly passes amended budget bill
The Kentucky Senate passed the executive branch budget bill, House Bill 500, four hours after it was presented to a committee Wednesday morning. HB 500 has been assigned to a conference committee. Read more.
Thanks to all for Joining Us for Our Town Hall
We want to thank everyone who was able to join us for this past Monday’s Town Hall Meeting held by Kentucky Conservation Committee, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Kentucky Resources Council and Kentucky Sierra Club to discuss trends in the legislature around our common health. If you were unable to join us, you can find the recording below!
Are you New to KCC? Welcome!
A space to hear all voices for the environment. The Kentucky Conservation Committee is one of the longest-running state-based conservation nonprofits, with a focus on providing a trusted voice in Kentucky’s Capitol and beyond. We effectively advocate for protection, restoration and sustainable use of natural resources for the equitable benefit of all citizens in our Commonwealth. KCC was formed in 1975, to provide a collaborative space for citizens and organizations to come together over shared goals on critical conservation policy issues, and make change happen. We provide nonprofit Government Relations and Legislative support for citizens and partner groups throughout the state on environmental and conservation issues. Explore our online resources and stay connected with us! Our team includes experienced nonpfofit legislative agents and consultants, and our Board of Directors is structured to include experienced environmental and conservation experts from a range of expertise from land conservation, clean energy, water resources, outdoor recreation, former state agency professionals and more. We debate every key bill weekly during the session to ensure that a wide range of voices are heard.