Rep. Emily Callaway

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 335B.010 to 335B.070 to require hiring or licensing authorities to establish an application process that gives persons convicted of a crime an opportunity to obtain a determination about whether the crime will disqualify the individual from a position of public employment or occupational license before pursuing employment or training; require hiring or licensing authorities to formulate policies and procedures for the application process by promulgating regulations no later than January 1, 2027; provide an annual report to the Legislative Research Commission by November 1, 2027; provide that certain entities are exempted from the requirements of the application process; amend KRS 335B.020 to add criteria for hiring and licensing authorities to consider when determining if a conviction directly relates to the position of public employment or occupational license sought; amend KRS 335B.030 to require hiring or licensing authorities to evaluate information and provide written findings of fact to the applicant upon determination.

Amend KRS 70.292, 70.293, and 95.022, regarding city and county programs to reemploy retired police officers without incurring employer retirement contributions, to reduce the required service of the officer or sheriff before retirement from 20 years to 15 years and to allow retired officers to take health insurance coverage through the employing city or county; amend KRS 61.702 and 78.5536 to conform.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 197 to establish the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Prison Education Program within the Department of Corrections in partnership with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to provide inmates with job training; require KCTCS to construct a facility to house the program at Northpoint Training Center; establish convictions that preclude participation in the program; require the parties to enter into a memorandum of agreement establishing the responsibilities of each party; amend KRS 196.281 to establish entitlement to a certificate of employability upon successful completion of the program and require reporting by the department; amend KRS 335B.020 to establish that a person shall not be disqualified from public employment or obtaining an occupational license solely because of previous criminal conviction and obtaining a certificate of employment from the department shall constitute rebuttable evidence of rehabilitation and fitness for the occupation; amend KRS 355B.030 to remove a conviction of a Class A felony, Class B felony, or any other felony offense other than a conviction that would qualify the individual as a registrant as defined in KRS 17.500 as supportive of a rebuttable presumption of a connection between that conviction and a license issuance request.

Create a new section of Chapter 311 to define terms; establish conditions and processes for pause in procedure for an organ donation; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to promulgate administrative regulations to implement and enforce the pause in procedure requirements; establish that the provisions should not be construed to conflict with KRS 446.400, discourage ethical organ donation, interfere with independent end-of-life decision making, conflict with the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, or authorize the Commonwealth to affect the federal certification, designation, or service area of an organ procurement organization; require the cabinet to submit report on pause in procedures to the Legislative Research Commission.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 322 to establish and grant scholarships through the Kentucky professional engineer and professional land surveyor incentive scholarship fund; declare legislative intent to address engineer and land surveyor development and needs by providing Kentucky residents with postsecondary scholarships; establish the Kentucky professional engineer and professional land surveyor incentive scholarship fund as a trust and agency accounts direct the engineer and land surveyor board to administer the fund and award scholarships to qualified applicants; require a written contract between the board and the recipient where the recipient agrees to obtain engineer or land surveyor licensure within 6 years of graduation and practice in Kentucky for at least 1 year for each year of scholarships granted; acquire moneys for the fund through penalties and fines, assessments from license renewals, and the board's budgeted funds; make the applicant's failure to complete the terms of the contract subject to recovery of the fund assistance, attorney's fees, and 8% annual interest; require the board to annually report its scholarship data to the Legislative Research Commission for referral to the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations.

Amend KRS 217.127 to define "charitable food donor" as a nonprofit or religious organization that is recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or home-based processor, which produces food for distribution to a homeless shelter or to individuals displaced due to a declared natural disaster; exempt a charitable food donor from the licensing requirements of KRS 217.005 to 217.215 and application of State Plumbing Code requirements; amend KRS 217.218 to conform; amend KRS 411.241 to exempt a nonprofit or religious organization that is recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or a home-based processor from civil or criminal liability arising from the production or donation of food to a homeless shelter or to individuals displaced due to a declared natural disaster.

Amend KRS 439.3401 to provide that a violent offender who has received a life sentence and has not been sentenced to 35 years without probation or parole or imprisonment for life without the benefit of probation or parole shall not be released on probation or parole until he or she has served at least 30 years; amend KRS 439.3406 to prohibit a person who has been convicted of a Class B felony or a person who is a violent offender who has been unanimously denied discretionary parole from qualifying for mandatory reentry supervisions; provide that the Department of Corrections shall provide an annual report on the results of the mandatory reentry supervision program to the Legislative Research Commission by February 1 of each year; amend KRS 504.150 to require a treating professional for a defendant who has received a sentence of guilty but mentally ill to file a petition for involuntary hospitalization under KRS Chapter 202A or 202B; amend KRS 532.025 to provide that if a defendant has been found guilty of intentional murder, the jury or court does not have to find any aggravating circumstance to sentence a defendant to imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole or imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole for 35 years; amend KRS 532.030 to enhance the sentence of imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole for 25 years to 35 years; amend KRS 532.110 to provide that sentences of a defendant convicted of 2 or more capital offenses, Class A felonies, Class B felonies, or a combination of those offenses or 2 or more violent offenses involving 2 or more victims shall run consecutively; amend various KRS sections to conform; repeal KRS 504.020 and 504.030; provide that the Act may be cited as Logan's Law.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 367 to establish requirements to protect minors from AI companion platforms and social media platforms using addictive features and predatory data collection; define terms; require AI companion platforms and social media platforms to refine their age verification for users; prohibit AI companion platforms or social media platforms from maintaining accounts for children without verifiable parental consent; create a private right of action for violations by AI companion platforms or social media platforms; authorize the Attorney General to enforce violations.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 39G to define "center," "executive director," "foreign enterprise," and "resident of the Commonwealth"; prohibit a resident of the Commonwealth from engaging in a transaction with a foreign enterprise if the transaction would result in foreign control of intellectual property, infrastructure, technology, or assets critical to the economic security of the Commonwealth, obstruction of counter-intelligence efforts, or would compromise the economic security of the Commonwealth; require the Kentucky Intelligence Fusion Center to review and investigate a transaction between a foreign enterprise and a resident of the Commonwealth; require the center to notify the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security once it has determined that a transaction would compromise the economic security of the Commonwealth; require the center to refer the matter to the appropriate federal authorities if a transaction would compromise the security of the United States; allow the center to contact other state and local agencies and access state and local databases if necessary in pursuit of a review or an investigation; require the center to assess whether the transaction between a foreign enterprise and a resident of the Commonwealth would pose a threat to the security of the Commonwealth, the level of threat the transaction would pose, whether that threat has been mitigated, whether the transaction is with or on behalf of a foreign government, and whether a foreign entity may obtain control of critical infrastructure, technology, or assets critical to the economic security of the Commonwealth; require the center to refer the matter to the Attorney General and notify the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security if it determines that the transaction would pose as a threat to the Commonwealth and the threat cannot be mitigated; require the center to meet with the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee at least twice a year to discuss any findings in its review or investigations that would compromise the economic security of the Commonwealth; allow either co-chair of the Legislative Investigations and Oversight Committee to compel additional meetings; require the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee to have required security clearance before meeting with the center; prohibit the center from meeting with the co-chairs if neither have obtained the required security clearance; exempt the meeting between the center and the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee from the Kentucky Open Meetings Act and exempt any records produced in the meeting from the Kentucky Open Records Act; require center to submit an annual report to the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee; exempt certain data from the report from the Kentucky Open Records Act; exempt certain data from the report from the Kentucky Open Meetings Act; direct that the first report to the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee be issued by July 1, 2027.

Amend KRS 12.070 to permit a board, commission, or similar administrative body to conduct video teleconference meetings to allow public participation; allow members of a board, commission, or similar administrative body to attend meetings virtually unless a decision implements, interprets, or prescribes law or policy, affects private rights or procedures available to the public, or administers or awards funds; prohibit members who participate virtually from receiving reimbursement for travel expenses; amend KRS 61.826 to prohibit a member of a public agency that attends a meeting through video teleconference from receiving reimbursement of travel expenses; amend KRS 164.004 to conform.