Rep. Kevin Jackson provides update of the Kentucky legislative session

FRANKFORT, Ky. – The Kentucky legislature has been hard at work during this legislative session, pushing new ideas and revisiting some old ones.

While over a thousand bills have been filed in the Kentucky House and Senate, only a select few have been voted on and passed to the next chamber. And now, with the legislative clock ticking away, the Senate and Congress are busy filing last minute bills and listening to testimony.

“We’ve had 92, I think, House bills that have passed the floor so far and been sent over to the Senate, and the Senate has passed 54 bills and their chamber and sent those over to the House. So we’re starting to hear in committee tomorrow, we’ll start to hear some of the Senate bills that have been sent to us, as well as still a few of our House bills that were trying to get in at the last minute,” said Kentucky State Rep. Kevin Jackson.

Some important legislature that has been tied up in Frankfort has been frustrating for some as they see it as a way to bolster the lives of Kentuckians.

House Bill 14, also known as Alyssa’s Law, a bill that has been put forward to help increase safety for kids in school, and House Bill 161, a bill that is looking to help decrease lines and wait times at driver’s license renewal centers, are mired in the political game even though they seen significant support.

While congressmen and women are debating though, a new factor has been introduced just today that could complicate some legislation. President Donald Trump’s tariffs went into effect Tuesday, affecting exports important to the Kentucky economy, especially bourbon. We’ve seen Canadian provinces take American alcohol off shelves, impacting sales here in the Commonwealth.

And even though bills such as the bourbon barrel tax has helped alleviate some pressures on the bourbon industry, it is unknown just how hard Kentucky could be impacted by these new tariffs.

“Could be an impact that, you know, we feel short term. Hopefully this is going to be a short term thing where President Trump can bring other world leaders to the table and say, hey, let’s let’s do this a little more fairly. But it could be something that goes on for an extended period of time,” Jackson said.

However, with all the challenges the Kentucky legislature is facing, staying bi-partisan and serving their constituents is still at the top of their agenda to make sure all Kentuckians are benefitting from their work in Frankfort.

“Our leadership tries to do a pretty good job. I’ve heard stories about maybe how it was in the past, and I think our leadership’s doing a pretty good job of trying to mesh some of those bills and bring some people together and do some bipartisan things. And I think that’s what we need to be doing,” Jackson said.

With only 10 days left in the short legislative session this year, the legislature will meet again for four days this week and next before they enter a 10-day period for the governor to veto any legislation or sign the bill making it law. After that the legislature will have the remaining days to vote to bypass Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto.