KCC Week 12 Recap- General Assembly 2026
Senate Bills Reviewed to Date HERE
Read our full lists — Many bills have had significant changes late in the session, so please review 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.
Bills Moving, Merging, Positions Changing
At this stage in the legislative calendar, lawmakers are scrambling to attach priority provisions into bills that still have time to pass.
Lawmakers now have only March 31 and April 1 remaining to complete their work on bills before the Governor’s Veto period begins on April 2nd. Lawmakers will then return for two days on April 14 and 15 to address the Governor’s veto or any other unfinished business.
The Governor has 10 days (excluding Sundays) to act on a bill after it is received.
The Governor may sign a bill, permit it to become law without signature, or veto it.
The bill may be passed over the Governor's veto by a majority of the members of both houses
So this past week, we have seen a lot of very “fluid” activity on several bills, where significant amendments and substitutes have caused us to review and revise our positions, depending on the changes. We have now revised our positions on House Bills 139, 311, and 677 as well as Senate Bills 39, and 185. Some bills are continuing to change daily, so please check our lists often for updates, including our “Hot Action Bills” list, which can be found on our home page. You can also check our social media for alerts. (We are on Facebook, X and Instagram.)
One of the more drastic changes this week was in Senate Bill 185(KCC Monitor), a bill relating to branch budget recommendations that became an act to restructure Kentucky State University. The bill would impose sweeping changes to KSU’s mission, academic curriculum, faculty employment, student admissions and financial management. The bill was amended in the Senate and is now in the House Appropriations & Revenue committee. KCC has concerns with these sweeping changes considering KSU is a historically Black agricultural/land-grant university with a strong environmental program. More about the proposed changes impacting KSU here.
Senate Bill 100, addressing the state’s Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) is now in the hands of a “Free Conference Committee” to debate further changes. A Free Conference Committee is a special, temporary committee formed to resolve differences between the House and Senate on a bill, with the power to propose entirely new language or revisions. Unlike regular conference committees, they are not limited to specific amendments and are often used for crucial, last-minute decisions in the final days of a session. We will be watching this bill closely for decisions coming from this committee. More background on the EPIC Commission.
We updated our position on Senate Bill 39 from “monitor” to “oppose” in part due to the over politicalization of fish and wildlife management and of the Commission in the latest amendments in the House, and that we believe some of these decisions need to be made within the Commission rather than legislated.
Senate Bill 8 was the bill addressing several reforms to the Public Service Commission is now listed as “monitor.”
We are now opposing House Bill 139, previously a “monitor” bill that amends several election statutes. The Senate Committee Substitute that passed this week made several troubling changes, including striking provisions that previously allowed voters without a standard ID to use a Social Security card, food stamp identification card, EBT card, or SNAP card as secondary forms of identification and removes the ability of an election officer to vouch for a voter who lacks ID simply because the voter is "personally known" to them.
We have changed House Bill 311, “An Act Relating to Railroad Crossings” from monitor to “support” due to revisions in the House Committee Sub which addresses our concerns.
House Bill 677, the comprehensive carbon sequestration bill where KCC had been a part of the state’s workgroup along with oil and gas interests to produce a consensus bill, had passed the House but was amended in the Senate this past week to now include several provisions impacting the siting of solar and wind projects, which now makes the bill more problematic. While we believe our work on developing a carbon sequestration framework is a good consensus bill, we unfortunately have had to downgrade our position from “support” to “monitor” while we attempt to have the language impacting renewables removed.
Senate vote on House Bill 139 relating to elections
On The Governor’s Desk
Nuclear Projects: This week, the Governor received Senate Bill 57, “An Act Relating to Nuclear Energy Development” which establishes the Nuclear Reactor Site Readiness Pilot Program, and includes awarding grant funding not to exceed $25M per grant application in applying for and procuring site permits among its provisions. This same week, Gov. Beshear announced the state’s single largest capital investment in Western Kentucky history as Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) announced plans to develop the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility, a $1.76 billion project located at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. While we understand the enthusiasm for nuclear economic development, we have significant concerns with current federal efforts to weaken nuclear regulations, as well as the significant taxpayer funds allocated in this bill. We urge you to contact the Governor’s office to veto this bill and then plan on attending one of the remaining public information meetings in Paducah, Northern KY, or Bowling Green.
Also making it to Governor’s desk this past week was Senate Bill 59 (Monitor) which expands the prohibition on local, state, and federal tax dollars and resources from being used to advocate for or against any public question. We also saw Senate Bill 222 (Support) “An act relating to environmental covenants” make its way to the Governor’s desk.
Please continue to Contact the Governor to “Veto” 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."
VETOED: The Governor acted on the financial disclosure bill, Senate Bill 183 (KCC Strong Oppose). See his full veto message here.
Still Time- Act Now
There is still time to act on one of our “strong oppose” bills, Senate Bill 195, the tort reform bill on civil actions which would make recovery for environmental harm more difficult in Kentucky. The bill passed the House and Senate with different versions and is now retained for Concurrence in the House. Contact the House and ask them to “not to concur.”
In the News
This week we worked with several of our allies as part of the Kentuckians for Energy Democracy coalition and the Leave the Heat On Collective on one last big “push” to move House Bill 377, addressing utility disconnections. We want to thank all of our members and supporters who made calls to move this simple bill. I’m sure many who were vested in this bill found it disheartening, we hope folks are proud of how much media attention has now been placed on this issue. And while we were managing the Leave the Heat On press conference, we also joined allies with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Kentucky Sierra Club on their Climate Lobby Day. So we want folks to know that your contributions to move these issues is appreciated.
And then soon after, several attendees, including KCC, attended one of the public hearings on nuclear energy in Lexington. You may read KCC’s comments to the PSC here. There are three more public meetings to go, with the next ones being held in Paducah (April 1), Northern KY (April 6), and Bowling Green (April 8). More on our nuclear website.
Finally, We want to convey our condolences to the family of Rep. Steven Rudy on the loss of his wife on March 18th. More here.
Lexington Nuclear Public Meeting with the PSC. Three more meetings in Paducah, Northern KY and Bowling Green