With the Senate’s adjournment on Friday, we have officially reached the halfway mark on the 2023 30-day Legislative Session. Week four was the most productive yet, as the Senate passed over 20 bills, sending them to the state House of Representatives for consideration.

Here are several bills receiving recent passage:

Senate Bill 3 establishes an Educators’ Employment Liability Insurance Program to provide teachers with coverage of excess liability. The Kentucky Department of Education would be tasked with implementing the program. The measure would give Kentucky teachers and each certified district employee with primary liability insurance coverage of no less than $1 million to protect the employees from liability arising in the course and scope of pursuing employment duties.

SB 3 will set the needed statutory support for a liability insurance program for Kentucky educators with the intent to allocate funding during next year’s 60-day budget session. Additionally, it provides liability coverage to teachers who opt out of participating in the public sector teacher’s union.

Senate Bill 5 ensures parental engagement in decision making regarding a student’s access to sexual materials that may be inappropriate or harmful to minors. It defines sex-related materials, programs, or events that a parent may reasonably consider offensive and unsuitable for children. The bill would require a local school board to adopt a complaint resolution policy to address parent/guardian objections to materials, programs, or events their child has access to that a parent or guardian may consider harmful. SB 5 establishes grievance levels for parents and guardians and outlines how parental complaints must be addressed, and decisions must be publicized.

Senate Bill 46 reforms the State Veterinarian’s Office to meet the demands of Kentucky’s growing agriculture industry and better respond to disasters by establishing several new divisions within the office aimed at emergency preparedness and response, regulator field services and animal health programs.

Senate Bill 71, a bill I was the primary sponsor of, updates Kentucky’s organ donor requirements to align with nationally recognized organ donation modes for organ donation and transplantation. There are 1,032 individuals in Kentucky waiting for a life-saving organ transplant and thousands of others who will be in need of a tissue or cornea transplant in 2023.

The significant aspect of Senate Bill 71 adds two additional classes of people who may make decisions related to the life-saving donation of organs or tissue:

• Another adult who is related to the decedent by blood, marriage, or 21 adoption, or who exhibited special care and concern for the decedent; and
• Any other person having the authority to dispose of the decedent’s body

Additionally, the bill will also serve to advance donation and transplantation science and clarify and strengthen examination and evaluation standards.

Senate Bill 72, a second bill I sponsored this week, allows rebuilt and salvaged vehicles, with completed paperwork, to utilize the speed title process. The Department of Vehicle Regulation does not allow certain types of titles to use the speed title process. Currently, a speed title cannot be done on the following: including classic vehicles, boats, mechanics lien, towing and storage, affidavit of ownership or bill of sale, duplicates, correction, restored title, out-of-country, court order, Kentucky assigned vehicle identification number, salvage title from “junk or not rebuildable,” or kit vehicle. The bill would also allow the department to set the processing time for speed titles on salvage and rebuilt vehicles. For rebuilt vehicles branded as “not rebuildable” in another state, the application is 15 business days. The application can be extended by five business days for all other salvage and rebuilt vehicles.

Senate Bill 99 aims to identify essential information about how relief funds are being distributed from the East and West Kentucky Relief Funds that the Governor created and future relief funds that may be created. The bill directs that a government agency head, cabinet secretary, or appointed official provide a report and analysis of all relief funds. The bill mandates specific information about the fund transactions be included to promote transparency and accountability. This information must be reported or submitted to the LRC by the end of each fiscal year.

You can follow the previously mentioned bills and more at legislature.ky.gov and watch live legislative activity at KET/org/legislature. You can also track the status of other legislation by calling 866-840-2835, legislative meeting information at 800-633-9650, or leaving a message for lawmakers at 800-372-7181.

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Senator Brandon J. Storm, R-London, represents the 21^st Senate District, including Casey, Laurel, Lincoln and Rockcastle Counties. He is Legislative Oversight and Investigations Statutory Committee chair and Senate Transportation Committee vice chair. Storm is also a Senate Banking and Insurance; Economic Development, Tourism and Labor; State and Local Government; and Judiciary committee member. He recently served as a 2022 Interim Emergency Medical Services Task Force member.