Here's which bills are on life support and which might come back to life

FRANKFORT — So many bills, so little time.

With more than 1,200 bills introduced this session, and just 60 days to consider them all, it’s inevitable that some bills get left behind.

This is the last week the General Assembly can pass bills before the veto period starts Friday. Gov. Andy Beshear then has until April 9 to veto bills. A few days later, the House and Senate will meet for two final days so lawmakers can decide whether to override Beshear’s vetoes.

While the clock is ticking down, legislators can sometimes find creative uses of procedure to revive bills hanging on by a thread. So it’s never safe to say “never” til the last day of session, April 15.

Zombie Bills 

One way dead bills can come back to life in the legislature is by being attached to seemingly unrelated bills via amendments. Here are a few bills where that could happen:

Momnibus picks up an anti-abortion amendment: House Bill 10 meets House Bill 467

A group of bipartisan female lawmakers spent the legislative off-season putting together a wide-ranging bill aimed at improving Kentucky’s poor maternal mortality rate, House Bill 10, the “Momnibus.” Lawmakers said they agreed to disagree on some issues and work together where they could find consensus – resulting in a unanimous vote on the House floor earlier this month.

But that bipartisan spirit hit an abortion-related roadblock last week. A Senate committee approved a new version that tacked on a controversial provision about how hospitals and birthing centers handle nonviable fetuses. The bill would now require medical facilities to provide mothers and fetuses in that position with perinatal palliative care or refer them to those services.

Democratic lawmakers walked out of a House committee meeting when a separate bill requiring such treatment came up earlier this month. They said that the proposal doubles down on the state’s abortion ban and that mothers carrying nonviable fetuses should have a right to abortion and not just palliative care.

The new version of the Momnibus — with the controversial palliative care proposal included — now must get Senate approval followed by House agreement to the changes before it can be sent to the governor.

Senate Bill 74 could pick up Baby Olivia bill

Another controversial proposal related to abortion and the debate over when life begins, the “Baby Olivia” bill, could now be attached to an unrelated Senate bill via a floor amendment.

Senate Bill 74 would require the Department of Public Health to permanently establish a child and maternal fatality review team. That innocuous-sounding measure gained unanimous support in the Senate last month and picked up House committee support in early March.

Last week, Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, filed a floor amendment to SB 74 that would require Kentucky schools to add videos of human development during pregnancy to sex education for students in sixth grade and up. That's a reprise of a standalone Tate bill that appears to be stalled, at least for now, in the House. Tate’s suggested video is the controversial and sometimes inaccurate Baby Olivia video produced by an anti-abortion group, although schools could make their own choices about what to show if the measure passes. They would also have to show high-definition ultrasound videos of fetal development.

If Tate's floor amendment to SB 74 is adopted by the House, the Senate would then need to approve the new version of the bill before it is sent to Gov. Andy Beshear.

On life support

Here are some bills that are hanging on for dear life and unlikely to pass.

Lunch Break Bill: House Bill 500

Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, caused a stir with a bill that would have eliminated workers’ rights to lunch and rest breaks. He later walked back that proposal, but the bill would still eliminate overtime pay for work on a seventh consecutive day and make other changes to state labor law. The bill has gotten House committee support but so far failed to get a House floor vote.

Childcare ‘Horizons’ Bill: Senate Bill 203

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, last month introduced a wide-ranging bill to help the state’s faltering childcare industry. Among many other changes, it would create a “foundation” fund that would provide a per-child payment to eligible child-care centers or family child-care homes. The bill got initial support from a Senate committee, but its estimated $150 million price tag means it needs support from the Senate budget committee, where the bill has been stalled since late February.

Autonomous vehicles: House Bill 7

It’s touch-and-go for Rep. Josh Bray’s autonomous vehicle bill. The measure was vetoed last year by Gov. Andy Beshear and, because it had passed in the Assembly at the last minute, lawmakers had no time to override the veto. The bill got off to a running start this year after it picked up House approval and a favorable Senate committee recommendation. However, it stalled since then. It’s been ready for a Senate floor vote since March 11, but so far leadership has not called the measure for a vote. Kentucky labor unions are vehemently opposed to the bill.

Property tax exemptions for seniors: Senate Bill 23

A bill that proposes a constitutional amendment that would prevent property tax increases for Kentucky homeowners 65 and older has been stalled since early March.

Senate Bill 23 would ask voters if they want to change the constitution to freeze the taxable property value on homes owned by Kentuckians over age 65. The bill got nearly unanimous Senate approval in February. It was assigned to a House committee in early March but has failed to get a hearing.

SB 23 is one of at least 23 constitutional amendments lawmakers have proposed putting to voters in November. At most, only four can be put on the ballot.

Dead bills

While it's technically possible for bills to rise from the dead at the last minute, that’s rare. Here’s a look at some that are almost certainly dead.

CARR: Senate Bill 13

Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield and Democrat Sen. David Yates filed a bill at the beginning of the session that would make it easier to temporarily remove firearms from a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

SB 13 focuses on Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention, also known as CARR.

Westerfield said he thinks the bill is dead because it doesn’t have key support from Republicans.

It took more than a month for SB 13 to get assigned to the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee, but the bill has not received a hearing.

Tampon and diaper taxes: House Bills 148 and 64; Senate Bills 38 and 97

One of the first events of the legislative session was a press conference by Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, aimed at drawing attention to her bill to eliminate taxes on tampons and other menstrual products. Rep. Kim Banta, R-Fort Mitchell, filed a similar bill on the first day of the session.

Since then, those bills have gone precisely nowhere; neither got a committee assignment in the House.

In the Senate, another tampon tax measure from Sen. Denise Harper Angel, D-Louisville, failed to get a committee hearing. Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville filed a bill that would have eliminated the tax on diapers. Despite having bipartisan support, that bill also never got a committee hearing.

Cannabis decriminalization: House Bills 72 and 160

Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, filed two bills aimed at marijuana decriminalization early in the session. House Bill 72 would exempt those aged 21 or older who are found to have a small amount of cannabis from civil or criminal penalty. HB 160 would allow voters to decide whether to amend the constitution to provide adults 21 or older with the right to have, use, buy, or sell one ounce or less of cannabis. Neither bill got a committee assignment in the House.

In vitro fertilization: Senate Bills 301 and 373; House Bill 757

After in vitro fertilization (IVF) gained national attention due to a recent Alabama Supreme Court decision, three Kentucky lawmakers introduced bills to protect IVF access.

IVF is a treatment option for infertility where eggs are removed from a woman’s ovary and combined with sperm to form an embryo outside the body.

Senate Bill 301, Senate Bill 373 and House Bill 757 would protect IVF access across the Commonwealth by changing the law to protect IVF providers from criminal liability. The bills are sponsored by Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, and Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville, respectively.

None of the three bills has gotten a committee hearing.

Key dates for the rest of the legislative session

• March 27 & 28: Deadline for concurrence, when House bills must get the agreement of the Senate and vice versa in order to pass

• March 29 - April 9: Veto period. The governor has ten days (excluding Sundays) after a bill is passed to veto. If he does not veto a bill, it becomes law, even if he does not sign it.

• April 12 & April 15: Last two days of the legislative session, when the General Assembly can vote to override the governor’s vetoes.

Reach Rebecca Grapevine at rgrapevine@courier-journal.com or follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @RebGrapevine. Reach reporter Hannah Pinski at @hpinski@courier-journal.com or follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @hannahpinski.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Here's which bills are dead and which might come back to life.