Legislative Update: House moves many bills to Senate, pension bill clears committee

House passes many bills in first day of final week

The House worked furiously Monday passing 28 bills in less than two hours.  A few bills of interest to the business community include:

The House unanimously passed HCR 168, sponsored by Rep. Gooch.  The resolution directs the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) to establish a task force to study the potential impacts of federal environmental regulations on the “affordability” and “reliability” of electricity generation in Kentucky.  The “Federal Environmental Regulation Impact Assessment Task Force” would be required to submit its  findings and recommendations to the LRC by December 4, 2015.

The House also passed a House Joint Resolution 77, sponsored by Rep. Dean Schamore, which urges the U.S. Department of Defense to reconsider proposed cuts to Fort Knox and Fort Campbell. A companion bill, SCR 147 has been filed in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Whitney Westerfield and Sen. Dennis Parrett. The Chamber supports this measure and commends the sponsors for supporting Kentucky’s army bases, which are critical to our state’s economy.

Important pension bill passes House Committee

This evening the House Committee on State Government unanimously passed SB 22.  This bill would require the Judicial Retirement Plan, the Legislators’ Retirement Plan, the Kentucky Retirement Systems and the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System establish a placement agent disclosure policy.

Specifically, the policy would require the reporting of placement agents and the fees or payments made to placement agents.  Kentucky Chamber-supported SB 22 passed the Senate earlier this session and will now move to the House floor for final passage.