SENATOR PHILLIP WHEELER’S LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

SENATOR PHILLIP WHEELER’S LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

Following the General Assembly’s constitutionally required recess during a 30-day session, lawmakers returned to Frankfort last Tuesday to begin the second half of the 2021 Session.

During the recess period, the governor vetoed six priority bills that the legislature sent him. I outlined those bills in my previous legislative update. They included Senate Bills (SB) 1 and 2, and House Bills (HB) 1, 2, 3, and 5. Please see my previous legislative update for details on each of these bills or find them online at legislature.ky.gov. Many of these vetoes came as no surprise. However, I am grateful to say that Senate Bill 9, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, became enacted law without the governor’s signature.

Fellow lawmakers and I wasted no time upon returning to Frankfort last Tuesday. The House and Senate overrode each of the vetoes mentioned above. These bills had an emergency clause, which means they became immediate law upon the General Assembly’s override of the veto and signature from the Secretary of State. The governor has filed litigation challenging HB 1 and SBs 1 and 2.

Important legislative work continued through the recess. The budget conference committee, including members from both the House and Senate, began meeting to work out an agreed-upon budget bill. This vital work will continue into the second part of the session and includes efforts to determine an agreed-upon transportation budget bill. I will be keeping you informed on developments.

In the Senate, we passed several bills this week. They will head over to the House for consideration. Bills included:

SB 8—Senate priority legislation that provides exemptions to mandatory immunization requirements during an epidemic based on religious grounds or conscientiously held beliefs. If enacted into law, it would require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to develop and make available on its website a standardized form relating to exemptions from immunization requirements.

SB 11—provides recourse for property owners to pursue legal action for intentional damages done to rental property. The bill would classify the deliberate or wanton destruction, defacement, and damage to residential rental property as criminal mischief. It also strives to provide landlords with notifications on background checks if a prospective applicant has previously been charged with causing substantial and intentional damage to rental property.

SB 21—allows originating hospitals to voluntarily transport mental health patients to a different hospital or facility upon staff authorization and a patient’s signed written agreement. It would prevent an adult or child patient who has voluntarily been transported from being released during the transport to a receiving facility. The bill would also establish that a qualified mutual health professional may provide outpatient counseling to any child who is age 16 or older.

SB 38—requires the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to implement regulations requiring health facilities to use a smoke evacuation system during any surgical procedure that is likely to produce surgical smoke.  It defines “surgical smoke” to mean the by-product resulting from tissue contact by an energy generating device. The bill’s primary intent is to protect operating room nurses and other personnel, along with patients, from the hazards of surgical smoke.

SB 61—establishes training standards for the staff of personal services agencies and home health agencies that serve patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. If enacted into law, the bill would improve the care provided to these patients. The hope is that it would also address retention of direct-care staff by better preparing them for job duties—resulting in less stress and dissatisfaction.

I continue to work on other important issues for the 31^st Senate District including SB 75 to further the development of recreational off-highway vehicle trail development in Eastern Kentucky.  We have had several meetings with various stakeholders, and hope committee members vote to approve the bill in the coming week.  Eastern Kentucky with the Red River Gorge and the Breaks Interstate Park, is one of the nation’s most beautiful regions.  I believe that Adventure Tourism has the possibility of bringing economic revival and making Eastern Kentucky a destination for people from across the nation.

I have also filed Senate Bill 110 to create an emergency insulin fund to help working-class diabetics gain access to life-saving medications.  It is my unshakable belief that the lives of fellow Kentuckians should not depend on whether or not they can afford their medications, especially when the same product is available in Canada and other first-world countries for less than a third of what it costs Americans.

Finally, I am a proud primary co-sponsor of Senate Resolution 63. It encourages President Joe Biden to rescind his Executive Order cancelling the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project that employs thousands of people across the United States including many welders and tradesmen from Eastern Kentucky.  This is an environmentally safe and necessary project to protect America’s energy independence and should not be victim to the dangerous agenda of the radical left in Washington.

There is still much work to be done. I will continue to keep you updated and informed in the weeks ahead through these legislative updates. I want to thank media outlets throughout the 31^st District who work diligently to keep communities aware of important stories here in the Commonwealth.

It is an honor to represent you in the Kentucky State Senate. Should you have any comments or concerns about these issues or any other public policy issue, please do not hesitate to contact my office. You can reach my office at 502-564-8100 Ext: 714 or by emailing me atphillip.wheeler@lrc.ky.gov. God bless.

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Note: Senator Phillip Wheeler (R-Pikeville) represents Kentucky’s 31^st State Senate District, which includes Elliott, Lawrence, Martin, Morgan, and Pike Counties. Senator Wheeler is Vice-Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor. He also serves as a member of the Senate Standing Committees on Transportation, Natural Resources and Energy, Judiciary, and State and Local Government. Additionally, he is a member of the Capital Planning and Bond Oversight Statutory Committee. For a high-resolution .jpeg of Senator Wheeler, please visit:

https://legislature.ky.gov/Legislators%20Full%20Res%20Images/senate131.jpg