2021 April PUBLISHED BY LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH COMMISSION Volume 34, No. 1 LEGISLATURE.KY.GOV/LEGISLATION/PAGES/DEFAULT.ASPX Legislation approved in 2021 session to have statewide impact by Rob Weber FRANKFORT -- The Kentucky General Assembly’s 2021 regular session was gaveled to a close on March 30, ending a session in which lawmakers approved a state budget for the coming fiscal year and numerous other measures that will affect people throughout the state. Most new laws approved this year will go into effect on June 29, except for those that specify a different effective date or include an emergency clause that made them take effect the instant they became law. Legislation approved by the 2021 General Assembly includes measures on the following topics: Adoption. House Bill 210 will ensure that employers offer adoptive parents the same amount of time off as birth parents when a child under the age of ten is being adopted. Asthma. Senate Bill 127 encourages schools to keep bronchodilator rescue inhalers in at least two locations and will require schools with inhalers to have policies in procedures in place regarding their use. Attorney General. House Bill 2 will give the attorney general greater authority to enforce laws concerning abortion clinics in Kentucky. Sen. Christian McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, discusses House Bill 192, the executive branch budget, in the Senate chamber. Lawmakers approved the plan that will guide spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Continued on page 2 THE KENTUCKY GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1 Legislation approved, from page 1 Born-alive infants. Senate Bill 9 requires that medically appropriate and reasonable life-saving and life-sustaining medical care and treatment must not be denied to any born-alive infant, including cases in which an attempted abortion results in a live birth. Billboards. House Bill 328 will re-establish the state’s regulatory authority for roadside billboards after a federal court ruling called the state’s prior regulations into question. It will put Kentucky’s statute back in place with changes intended to ensure its constitutionality. Broadband. House Bill 320 will expand broadband internet service to underserved areas with $250 million for the broadband deployment fund. The measure will also reduce barriers for electric cooperatives to offer the service. Capitol security. Senate Bill 227 will require Kentucky State Police to brief the leadership of the General Assembly and the Legislative Research Commission on security matters relating to the State Capitol campus. Rep. Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, discusses a bill during a legislative committee meeting. Lawmakers passed 200 bills into law during the 2021 legislative session. Child and new mother fatalities. House Bill executive order, administrative regulation or order diabetes by capping cost-sharing requirements for 212 will require data in an annual state report on of any cabinet be filed outside of Franklin County. prescription insulin at $30 per 30-day supply in fatalities among children and new mothers to state-regulated health plans. include information on demographics, race, income and geography associated with the fatalities. Colon cancer. Senate Bill 16 will change the name of Kentucky’s Colon Cancer Screening Driver safety. House Bill 439 will require vision Program to the Colon Cancer Screening and testing for renewal of a driver’s license, starting in Child protection. House Bill 254 will raise Prevention Program. A second provision will raise 2024. the penalty for possession or viewing of matter money for the screening program from the sale portraying a sexual performance by a minor under of special cancer prevention license plates. It will the age of 12 years to a Class C felony. It will also also require the Department for Medicaid Services raise the penalty for the distribution of matter Education. House Bill 563 will give families to release statistics on cancer services related to portraying a sexual performance of a minor under more options when making decisions about colorectal cancer. the age of 12 years to a Class C felony for the first schools. The bill will allow the use of education offense and a Class B felony for each subsequent opportunity accounts, a type of scholarship, for offense. educational expenses and, for students in some Commission on Race and Access to of the state’s largest counties, for private school Opportunity. Senate Bill 10 will create the tuition. Individuals or businesses who donate to Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity. organizations that issue education opportunity Child support. House Bill 402 will increase The group will conduct studies and research on accounts will be eligible for a tax credit. The the amount considered flagrant nonsupport from issues where disparities may exist in areas including measure will also require a board of education to $1,000 to $5,000. education, child welfare, health care, the economy adopt a nonresident pupil policy to govern terms and criminal justice system. under which the district allows enrollment of nonresident pupils. Civil actions. House Bill 3 will allow civil actions regarding the constitutionality of a Kentucky statute, Diabetes. House Bill 95 will help those with Continued on page 3 2 2021 INTERIM LEGISLATIVE RECORD Legislation approved, from page 2 permitted food service establishments from any state or local laws and administrative Elections. House Bill 574 will make some regulations that prohibit the sale of grocery of the election procedures implemented items such as bread, milk, and other staples. last year to accommodate voting during the pandemic permanent. The measure will offer Kentuckians three days – including a Saturday – leading up to an election day for early, in- Illegal dumping. Senate Bill 86 will person voting. It will allow county clerks to designate 100 percent of a new open dumping continue to offer ballot drop boxes for those fine to be paid to the county where the who do not wish to send their ballots back violation occurred. by mail. It will also counties to offer voting centers where any registered voter in the county could vote. Immunizations. Senate Bill 8 would create exemptions from any mandatory immunizations for those who object based on Ethics. Senate Bill 6 will create standards for religious beliefs. It also prohibits orders during ethical conduct for transition team members an epidemic from requiring the immunization of all newly elected statewide officeholders. of people who object based on conscientiously The standards include identifying any team held beliefs or the written opinion of the member who is or has been a lobbyist. It will person’s physician that immunization would require disclosure of current employment, be injurious to the person’s health. board member appointments and any non- state sources of money received for their services. It will also prohibit the receipt of Inmate care. Senate Bill 84 will ban jails, nonpublic information that could benefit a penitentiaries, local and state correctional transition team member financially. facilities, residential centers and reentry centers from placing inmates who are pregnant or within the immediate postpartum Firefighters. House Bill 44 will allocate period in restrictive housing, administrative funding to help full-time and volunteer segregation, or solitary confinement. It will firefighters experiencing a post-traumatic grant an inmate who gives birth 72 hours stress injury or disorder receive proper care with a newborn before returning to the from a licensed mental health professional. correctional facility and will offer six weeks of postpartum care. It also mandates that incarcerated pregnant women have access to social workers and any community-based First responders. Senate Bill 169 will give programs to facilitate the placement and first responders injured in the line of duty possible reunification of their child. access to more disability benefits. Line of duty or duty-related disability benefits payable to a member of any of the systems administered by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, the primary sponsor the Kentucky Retirement Systems will increase In-person instruction. House Bill 208 from 25% to 75% of the member’s monthly of House Bill 574, listens as Secretary of State Michael ensured that public schools reopened to in- average pay. Adams testifies in favor of the election reform measure. person instruction in some capacity by March 29. Under the legislation, public schools are expected to be open to in-person instruction at least four days a week for the remainder of the Fish and Wildlife Commission. House Bill 2020-21 academic year. Schools have the option to 394 calls for the state’s Fish and Wildlife Resources General Assembly. House Bill 4 will let voters operate under a hybrid model where students spend Commission to have sole authority to appoint decide next year on a proposed amendment to the part of the week attending in-person classes and the the commissioner of the Department of Fish and Kentucky Constitution that will allow the General rest from home. The bill requires schools to allow Wildlife Resources. Assembly to convene an additional 12 legislative a student to attend in-person classes at least twice days each year upon a joint proclamation from the a week under the hybrid model. It also limits the Senate president and House speaker. remaining amount of nontraditional instruction Gaming. Senate Bill 120 will define pari-mutuel days school districts are allowed to use. wagering in state law in a manner intended to ensure the legality of certain historical horse racing Groceries. House Bill 190 will exempt legally games that are often compared to slot machines. Continued on page 4 THE KENTUCKY GENERAL ASSEMBLY 3 Public records. House Bill 312 will limit the Legislation approved, ability of people who do not live, work or conduct from page 3 business in Kentucky to obtain records through the state’s open records law.