During his 10 day veto period, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear fully or partially vetoed 29 bills and resolutions. The Kentucky General Assembly’s Republican supermajority returned to Frankfort Thursday, quickly dispatching nearly all of them with overrides.
A dozen of those bills contain emergency clauses to go into effect immediately, including one that would block Medicaid spending on gender-affirming medical care and another that would strip the state’s ability to regulate pollution in certain water sources.
Most of the other bills lawmakers voted to override the vetoes of will go into effect in mid-summer, 90 days after the end of the legislative session Friday.
Most of the discussion on the House and Senate chamber floors Thursday was from members of their small Democratic minority, voicing their strong criticism of the legislation, before the large Republican supermajority easily voted to override Beshear’s actions and steer them into law.
Some of the bills passed over Beshear’s veto
- HB 695 – Adds work reporting requirement to Medicaid
- HB 495 – Protects therapists practicing “conversion therapy”
- HB 398 – Lowers workplace safety standards
- SB 89 – Allows more water pollution, including ground water
- HB 90 – Additional language supposedly “clarifying” the state’s abortion ban
- HB 4 – Anti-DEI
Read the rest at Louisville Public Media.
