Keeping an eye on interesting bills in Frankfort

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview 82nd District Representative Nick Wilson to get his thoughts after completing his first full year in the Kentucky House of Representatives. During the course of that interview, I learned more about the process of how bills become laws. I also learned that you can actually track the progress of bills in the House and the Senate online.

Not having been in the position to cover legislative matters much in the past, I was unaware that anyone willing to do so can hop on the Internet, pull up the Kentucky General Assembly website (www.legislature.ky.gov), and look at each bill that is currently making its way through either the House of Representatives or the Senate. Not only that, but you can see which bills are receiving second readings, being amended, receiving approval, etc.

Again, as someone who has not spent a great deal of time tracking these efforts up to this point, I find all of this rather fascinating, and if you aren’t already keeping an eye on the website yourself, then I strongly suggest that you give it a look.

In researching many of the bills currently being proposed in Frankfort, there were a few that caught my attention. I would like to share a few of those with you here.

Not long ago, we ran a story here in the News Journal about the arrest of a person who ended up injuring a police officer in the process. They also got physical with healthcare workers at a local medical facility, which is why I was happy to come across House Bill 194, which relates to workplace violence against healthcare workers. This bill is being sponsored by a group of 15 representatives, and the summary states that, should it become law, it would “amend KRS 508.025 to expand assault in the third degree to include causing or attempting to cause physical injury to a person employed by or under contract with a hospital if the event occurs in or on the premises of a hospital affiliate outpatient facility.”

Another bill that caught my eye was HB 212, which relates to the mental health of first responders. This bill is getting wide support with a long list of sponsors, including our own Nick Wilson. If passed, it would “amend KRS 95A.292 to allow rescue squad members to participate in the Alan ‘Chip’ Terry Professional Development and Wellness Program and create a new section of KRS Chapter 39F to direct the Division of EmergencyManagement and the Kentucky Fire Commission to enter into an agreement to ensure that rescue squad members have access to the program.”

As of this writing, I am not familiar with the aforementioned program, but I do know that first responders have to see and deal with some very difficult, and oftentimes traumatizing, situations each and every day due to the nature of their work. I am in favor of anything that would make mental health services more readily available to these individuals, so I definitely hope that this bill will be successful in accomplishing that.

Another bill, HB 323, relates to cancer detection in firefighters. Basically, it would permit the Kentucky Fire Commission to “establish a reimbursement program for cancer screenings for firefighters.”

Having had the opportunity to be on the scene of various types of fires, I can tell you that firefighters run the risk of exposing themselves to any number of harmful chemicals or fumes. Of course, this is one of the main reasons why they utilize certain safety equipment, but these scenes are often chaotic, and moments leading up to or just following an actual firefight can also have repercussions, depending on the situation. For this reason, I think we should absolutely make cancer screenings as available as possible for these individuals. Hopefully this bill will help to make that a reality.

I am running out of space, so let me quickly throw out a few more examples that I hope you will take the time to look up yourself…

• HB 377, which deals with teacher recruitment and retention. This is an area that we certainly could use some help in, as explained by our own Mark White in his column from one week ago.

• HB 176, which relates to the compensation of jurors. As it stands now, anyone selected to serve on a jury will receive $5 per day, plus an additional $7.50 per day for expenses. This bill proposes that we replace that with a flat $25 per day reimbursement. Sounds good to me.

• HB 192 and HB 193, both deal with highway work zones and motor vehicle safety in those zones. Considering all of the road construction that we currently have going on in our area, I think it is safe to say that laws protecting the men and women who are working at those job sites are extremely important.

Of course, all of these bills will need to receive support from the Senate and Gov. Andy Beshear before they become law, but I feel like they all have the potential for that to happen.