FRANKFORT, Ky. — Lawmakers have been hard at work all week in Frankfort as the 30-day legislative session enters its final days. Friday was day 28 of the session and the last before the governor’s 10-day veto period.

What You Need To Know

  • The Senate passed House Bill 392, which would require transgender inmates to be housed in prisons that align with their biological sex 

  • HB 392 also requires the Cabinet of Health and Human Services to provide emergency services outside of state ran facilities  

  • Senate Bill 25 became a hodgepodge of other bills, including housing, where bills will be delivered to the governor next year and a state level Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) 

  • Senate Bill 19 received final passage and requires moments of reflection and silence before the school day

As is the standard during the two concurrence days, lawmakers worked around the clock, sending bills from one chamber to the other and eventually to the desk of Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky.

In the 11th hour, the Senate passed a bill that would require transgender and intersex inmates be housed in state prisons that align with their biological sex. The Senate amended House Bill 392.

The original bill established that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services is responsible for providing emergency care and other services outside of a state-ran facility for people in state operated mental health facilities.

State Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said the amendment is a clear violation of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and is a continued assault on the LGBTQ+ community.

“This continuous and unnecessary attack on the LGBTQ+ community certainly violates what I read in the Bible; it violates my moral standards,” Thomas said.

State Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, carried the amendment on the Senate floor. She argued the change from senators is about protecting biological women’s private spaces.

“The party that used to be such an advocate for women’s rights has turned on women, and I’m proud to say that this chamber and this general assembly has stood up for women repeatedly over and over again,” Tichenor said.

Throughout the final days before the veto period, Senate Bill 25 became a hodgepodge of several measures on several subjects.

Among other things, it now addresses housing, the auditor’s office, and where bills should be delivered to the governor next year. The bill also contains language that would ask each department and cabinet within the executive branch to deliver reports to the legislature for improving government efficiency.

State Rep. Sarah Stalker, D-Louisville, was one of several Democrats who criticized a state level version of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

“What is happening at the national level that is compromising many of the systems that everyday people rely on, and we want to emulate that at a state level, I think is terrifying and wrong,” Stalker said.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said he rejects that notion.

“I think that had DOGE not become commonplace language, I don’t think anyone would be thinking that,” Osborne said. “But I think as we have illustrated in the last several years, we are continuing to drill down and find efficiencies throughout state government.”

Back in the Senate, the upper chamber also gave final passage to Senate Bill 19. The bill from State Sen. Rick Girdler, R-Somerset, requires moments of silence or reflection at the start of each school day.

The bill was amended in the House to require local boards of education to allow students to be excused for one hour no more than one day a school week if they choose to do so to attend a district-approved request for moral instruction.

Moral instruction would not take place on school grounds and would not be of any cost to the district.

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