Beech Tree News Network

It was an honor to serve you and our district in Frankfort this session. Called the “most productive and historic session” in history, I, along with my colleagues in the Senate, were proud to stand with Kentuckians as we passed historic legislation alongside our new House Majority. In November of 2016, citizens from across the Commonwealth gave us a mandate through the electoral process to fundamentally change our state. Voters chose a new House Majority to work alongside the Republican Senate Majority and Republican Governor Matt Bevin—a super trifecta that promised positive change for Kentucky.
 
And that trifecta upheld its promises to the people of Kentucky.  The General Assembly passed quite a few Senate priority bills that have now been signed by the Governor, including:

Senate Bill 1, known as the “Let Teachers Teach” bill, sets out comprehensive education reform that will effectively repeal Common Core standards while giving power back to local school districts and teachers.

Senate Bill 2 increases transparency within the public pension system and adds more members to the Public Pension Oversight Board. Senate Bill 3 is another pension transparency measure that requires the disclosures of the retirement benefit information of current and former members of the Kentucky General Assembly.

Senate Bill 5, a pro-life measure known as the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Act,” prohibits abortions after 20 weeks gestation except in medical emergency cases.
 
Senate Bill 8 is another pro-life bill that defunds Planned Parenthood by prohibiting the use of state and local funds for abortions. It establishes a funding priority mechanism for the use of federal funds that places state, county, and local community health clinics first in line.

Senate Bill 11, “The Leeper Act,” lifts Kentucky’s nuclear moratorium to expand our state’s energy portfolio and keeps our state competitive in a global energy market.

Senate Bill 17, known as the “Charlie Brown Law,” preserves students’ rights to political and religious speech in schools. The legislation was inspired, in part, by an incident in which a school from our region removed the scripture verse from their “Charlie Brown Christmas” play due to the threat of a lawsuit. Courts have consistently held, however, that schools have the ability to sponsor and host religious and historical programs.

Senate Bill 21, known as the “Right to Try” bill, was a piece of legislation I proudly sponsored that will allow terminally-diagnosed patients to try experimental treatments.

Senate Bill 38 strengthens the penalties against timer theft, and I was also proud to be the primary sponsor of this bill.

Senate Bill 50 provides local school districts the opportunity to move the start of the school year closer to Labor Day. This measure would extend the summer break for tourism activities, cut back on schools’ utility expenses, and mitigate heat stress on bus riders.

Senate Bill 81, of which I was proudly the primary sponsor, provides death-in-the-line-of-duty benefits for Kentucky National Guard members.

Senate Bill 120 is criminal justice reform legislation that helps integrate ex-convicts back into the workforce. It would not apply to those who have violent offenses or who have committed sex crimes, among other exceptions.

Senate Bill 153 aligns state university funding with the state’s postsecondary education goals by basing funding on how well schools are helping students and the state reach those goals. This new model would be phased in over four years to provide stability to postsecondary schools as they move to this new formula.

We also passed a number of Kentucky House priority bills that became law including:

House Bill 2, pro-life legislation that requires physicians to provide an ultrasound prior to an abortion, ensures providers offer as much information as possible to women considering an abortion. This measure does allow a woman to opt out of viewing the ultrasound or hearing the heartbeat.

House Bill 14, known as the “Blue Lives Matter” bill, makes it a hate crime to violently target law enforcement officials and first responders.
 
House Bill 156 was amended to include the language for Senate Bill 215, establishing the Kentucky Coal Fields Endowment Fund to be used for the purpose of supporting efforts to diversify the economy of the coal fields within Kentucky. The bill also allocates $7.5 million towards that fund annually.

We also passed notable House bills aimed at helping Kentucky’s state agency children. House Bill 180 eases the process of placing a foster child with relatives, and House Bill 192 allows a minor who is in the custody of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to obtain a driver’s license with the proper application House Bill 522 is another bill aimed at helping state agency minors by allowing children who are at least 17 years old to seek a high school equivalency diploma.

It is clear the 2017 Session is one for the history books. We passed laws that attract businesses to our state instead of pushing them away. We kept our commitment to Kentucky families by opening up new education possibilities, strengthening laws to protect our children, and giving minors in state care more opportunities to successfully transition into adulthood. We fought for more transparency in the state pension system to uphold the integrity of government. With the Kentucky Senate, House, and Governor working together, we delivered for the people of our great Commonwealth.

Although the 2017 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly has come to an end, there is still much to do. Interim joint committees will begin meeting in June and discussing various policy topics that affect our Commonwealth. There has also been much discussion about a special legislative session to discuss tax reform and our failing pension system, and I look forward to continuing those conversations in these upcoming months.

Senator C.B. Embry, JR (R-Morgantown) represents the 6th District including Butler, Hopkins, Muhlenberg, and Ohio Counties. He is Vice Chair of Veterans, Military Affairs, & Public Protection Committee and co-chairman of the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee. He also serves as a member of the Agriculture Committee, the Natural Resources and Energy Committee, the Transportation Committee, and the Budget Review Subcommittee on Education.