Kentucky Senate opens, refers bills to committees and adjourns until Jan. 13

The Kentucky Senate convened for a brief floor session that opened with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance and quickly moved through procedural business on the calendar. After the clerk’s report of committee referrals and a series of cosponsorship filings, the Senate recessed for committee business and later adjourned until 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.

The Committee on Committees reported referrals for a slate of measures, sending Senate Bill 38 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 9 to the Health Services Committee; Senate Bills 29 and 49 to Natural Resources and Energy; Senate Bills 10, 27, 40 and 51 to State and Local Government; and Senate Bills 28 and 30 to Transportation. The clerk also listed multiple Senate resolutions for floor action. "The committee on committees has met and referred the following bills and resolutions," the Senate Clerk reported during the floor readout.

Throughout the session several senators sought and received permission to be added as cosponsors to pending legislation. The presiding officer ordered the paperwork filed "without objection" for most of those requests. The clerk later reported additional newly filed measures, including Senate Bill 62 (relating to evictions during extreme weather), SB63 (student journalist freedom), SB64 (emergency declaration authority for the Kentucky Commission's network authority), and a package of other bills addressing topics from public pensions to health care workforce recruitment.

Senate business included short scheduling announcements: the Families and Children Committee meeting scheduled for 8:00 a.m. will not meet tomorrow, and the Senate Agriculture Committee is now scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Tuesdays. With no unresolved floor business, a motion to adjourn until 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, was made and carried "without objection."