Kentucky lawmakers took an initial step Wednesday toward giving themselves oversight of relief funds like the ones the governor created to help people recover from tornadoes and flooding.
The measure, which sailed through a Senate committee, calls for an annual report of relief funds created by a government agency or elected official. The bill stems from reports that some checks supported by the tornado relief fund went to people unaffected by the tragedy.
Gov. Andy Beshear created the funds following tornadoes that tore through parts of western Kentucky in late 2021 and flooding that inundated portions of eastern Kentucky last summer.
Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield said Wednesday that his bill seeks answers to “basic and fundamental questions” about distribution of money from the disaster relief funds.
“I think it’s fair for us to just ask questions about where the money has gone, how they made decisions about how to distribute money," Westerfield told the committee.
The Democratic governor has defended the funds' transparency, including a website tracking the distribution of money. Relief money paid funeral expenses of storm victims and helped affected homeowners, renters and farmers.
“This is an open book,” Beshear said recently. “Everything here is a public record."
Newly filed legislation allowing illegal abortions to be prosecuted as homicides drew a quick pushback Wednesday from the state's anti-abortion attorney general, who warned it would wrongly subject Kentucky women to charges for terminating pregnancies.
Republican state Rep. Emily Callaway raised the stakes in the state's bitter abortion debates when she introduced the measure Tuesday in a state where most abortions are currently banned.
The freshman lawmaker's proposal would subject illegal abortions to the “same legal principles as would apply to the homicide of a person who had been born alive.” The bill would expand the definition of a human being to include an “unborn child.”
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican who is running for governor, responded Wednesday that the bill “strikes the wrong balance” and urged the GOP-led legislature to reject it.
“If adopted by the General Assembly, this bill would allow pregnant mothers who have an abortion to be criminally charged and prosecuted with homicide,” Cameron said in a statement from his office that also touted his anti-abortion credentials.
So far, the highly charged abortion issue has mostly been on the back burner in this year's legislative session in the Bluegrass State. Lawmakers are awaiting a ruling by Kentucky's Supreme Court in a case revolving around the constitutionality of the state's near-total abortion ban.
The state’s trigger law outlawing nearly all abortions is being challenged. It took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kentucky law carved out narrow exceptions to save a pregnant woman’s life or prevent disabling injury.
Kentucky's Republican House speaker, David Osborne, said Wednesday that he anticipates other abortion-related legislation being introduced in the coming days, including proposals that would provide further exceptions when abortion would be legal.
Osborne gave a chilly response to Callaway's proposal to prosecute abortions as homicides. He said Kentucky lawmakers have “never passed a ‘pro-life’ measure that did not take into consideration the necessity for any exceptions, nor has this House majority caucus ever contemplated doing so.”
Republicans have supermajorities in both the Kentucky House and Senate.
The state's trigger law targets doctors for prosecution for providing abortions in violation of state law, but pregnant women who receive abortions are not subject to prosecution. But the new bill introduced by Callaway did not appear to make exceptions for pregnant people.
Her bill would exempt abortions necessary to prevent a pregnant woman's death. It includes other exceptions for a “spontaneous miscarriage;” or for abortions provided only after “all reasonable alternatives to save the life of the unborn child are unavailable or were attempted unsuccessfully."
The measure would give the attorney general's office concurrent jurisdiction along with local prosecutors in prosecuting illegal abortions as homicides.
Cameron, in the midst of this year's hotly contested GOP primary campaign for governor, immediately distanced himself from the proposal.
“While I strongly support prohibiting abortions in Kentucky, I just as strongly support helping pregnant women," Cameron said. “Pregnant mothers deserve our help, support and life-affirming options, not to face criminal charges.”
Cameron's office has defended the trigger law and a separate six-week state abortion ban in legal challenges that reached the state's highest court.
Kentucky lawmakers on Wednesday advanced the first phase of proposed legislation to end unrest in a statewide juvenile detention system that is struggling after a rash of violence.
The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill aimed at reopening a youth detention center in Louisville and changing policies for juveniles charged with violent offenses. It would require such youths to be held for up to 48 hours, pending a detention hearing before a judge.
The action comes as lawmakers put their stamp on policies meant to defuse risks of violence in youth detention centers. The juvenile justice system has struggled to house increasing numbers of youths accused of violent offenses. The result has been a string of assaults, riots and escapes.
The goal is to enhance community safety while steering youth offenders onto the right path through education, mental health or substance abuse programs, said Republican Rep. Jason Nemes. Louisville, the state's largest city, has been hit by a rise in violent juvenile crime.
“We are trying to thread the needle," Nemes said during the committee hearing. “We have got to save our kids, our communities, our families.”
Republican Rep. Kevin Bratcher, lead sponsor of the bill, said another measure is expected to deal with internal problems within the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
Bratcher's bill also is aimed at ensuring parental involvement. Under his proposal, parents of a charged juvenile would have to appear before a judge if they're not cooperating with their child’s diversion program, with the potential for criminal penalties.
Bratcher's bill also would appropriate $8.9 million to retrofit and reopen a juvenile detention center in Louisville. Many detained Louisville youths are now sent to a detention facility in rural Adair County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Louisville.
Critics of the measure said its priorities are misplaced, questioning whether it would achieve the objectives sought.
“We have created poor systems that are operating poorly. Doing more of the same is unlikely to give us different results,” said the Rev. Kent Gilbert of the Kentucky Council of Churches.
The committee action came a day after John Hicks, the governor’s executive cabinet secretary, presented funding requests totaling about $45 million over the next two years — much of it to shore up staffing and safety in the juvenile detention system.
Meanwhile, Democratic state Reps. Keturah Herron and Lisa Willner touted legislation Wednesday aimed at reducing the need to detain youths and guaranteeing critical services for those under state supervision. Republicans have supermajorities in the Kentucky legislature.
“We have an opportunity this legislative session to make a real and lasting difference when it comes to juvenile justice,” Willner said. “We cannot let this governing-by-crisis continue."
The back-and-forth discussions come as the juvenile justice system tries to overcome recent outbreaks of violence. A riot broke out last year at a detention center, leaving several young people and staff wounded. Order was restored after state police and other law enforcement officers entered the facility. More recently, three juveniles kicked and punched staff during an attack at another center.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear responded with a series of policy changes to try to quell the violence. He announced that male juveniles would be assigned to facilities based on the severity of their offenses. Three high-security juvenile detention centers were designated to house teenage male offenders charged with serious crimes. The governor ordered the opening of the state’s first female-only juvenile detention center.
In other actions, the governor increased starting pay for detention center staff and said “defensive equipment” — pepper spray and Tasers — will be provided for the first time so detention center workers can defend themselves and others if attacked.