This story will be updated throughout the day.

Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session is officially — finally — coming to a close.

Lawmakers will spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Frankfort, overriding any vetoes from Gov. Andy Beshear, passing any last-second bills and wrapping things up before heading home for the year. 

Things will kick off at 10 a.m. Tuesday when the Senate gavels in, and everything must adjourn by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday (but they don’t have to stay that late). 

All of this year’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is already dead, but Queer Kentucky will still keep y’all updated about anything you need to know about using this handy-dandy live blog. So, bookmark it now and check back frequently for the latest from the state Capitol. 

Got a question on a legislative issue or want us to look into a bill for you? Drop a note in Queer Kentucky’s politics survey or contact lead politics writer Olivia Krauth directly at [email protected]. 

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6:50 p.m. Tuesday — Coming back from dinner

We’re slowly coming back from dinner break to the Senate not agreeing with the House’s changes on that big housing bill — Senate Bill 9 — I mentioned earlier today.

This means they’re doing a conference committee between the House and Senate to try and reach a compromise on the topic. Who knows what they’ll come up with, or when they’ll share that info with us.

3:55 p.m. Tuesday — Still rockin’ and rollin’

We’re really moving at a brisk pace today. Both chambers are basically done with all of the veto overrides, with just a few more left in the Senate. It looks like it might be an early end for the day, because I’m not totally sure what else they have left to do.

12:50 p.m. Tuesday — And the Senate is done with overrides

With a supermajority, the veto override process is generally pretty easy — a bit time-consuming, but typically easy for the Republicans.

The Senate had 10 Senate bills facing vetoes today, and overrode all of them in less than an hour. Now those bills will head to the House for the same process. (And once the House is done with their bills, they’ll head to the Senate.)

Of the Senate bills that got vetoed, several were education related. Two changed the power and makeup of the JCPS school board, and another would make it easier for outside education service providers — those often in charge of charter schools — to run public schools.

Meanwhile, the House is working through their veto overrides. They’ve already overridden vetoes on bills that would protect firearm dealers from lawsuits tied to guns and to allow 18-year-olds to carry concealed weapons.

12:30 p.m. Tuesday — Bills to watch

Just because it is the final two days of session does not mean lawmakers can’t pass new legislation. They can definitely do that, but they won’t have a chance to override Beshear should he veto it, so basically anything they pass now needs to be uncontroversial.

One big thing to watch is Senate Bill 9 — an omnibus housing package aimed at making it easier to build housing, therefore hopefully making it more affordable. This was a Republican priority bill in the Senate, but the House added a ton of stuff to it at the last minute before the veto period and the Senate didn’t agree to their changes before the veto period started.

Typically, that spells death for a bill, but Sen. Robby Mills (R-Henderson) — the bill’s sponsor — posted on social media that he hopes to still see the bill through by the end of session.

Of course, we’re still keeping an eye on House Bill 759 — the uncontroversial teacher certification bill that got a last-second anti-trans teacher amendment. The bill never got a vote, so the amendment hasn’t formally been struck down yet, but it fully expected to be dead. There’s still a chance the original HB 759 bill will get a vote in the last two days here, so we’ll keep you posted on that.

12:15 p.m. Tuesday — Rockin’ and rollin’

Hello, friends, welcome to the second to last day of the legislative session!

The Senate has been up and at ‘em for a bit, and they’re currently running through a series of veto overrides of various bills Beshear vetoed over the last two weeks. The House gavels in at noon and should start doing the same.

OK, what is a veto override and how does it work? When the legislature sends Beshear bills to consider, he can veto them — aka basically say no and explain why. But the legislature can override him with a simple majority vote — and they have about 80% of all seats in the House and Senate.

Both the House and Senate have to vote to override a veto, so two separate votes, and then they send the bill to the Secretary of State’s office to become law.