How does a bill become a law in Kentucky? 

Kentucky’s legislative process — aka how a bill becomes a law — has several steps, and a fair amount of rules and caveats, and all of it can be tricky to figure out, learn, memorize and apply to what you’re seeing in Frankfort when it isn’t your full-time job. 

That’s where I come in. Hi, I’m Olivia — Queer Kentucky’s lead political writer. I’m an award-winning writer, and 2026 will be my ninth regular legislative session as a reporter. 

Consider this the first installment of a rolling, occasional series from Queer Kentucky on how to navigate and understand the basics of Kentucky politics and policy.

My goal is to catch anyone who needs it at the ground level, or to just provide an easy-to-understand reference guide, so everyone knows what they need to know in order to understand what’s going on. 

Let’s begin.

The bill gets filed

Basically, a lawmaker has an idea for a new law or a way to improve an existing law, so they work with a bill drafter to put it into legalese and file it as a bill. 

The bill gets assigned to a committee

Once filed, a bill goes to a place called the Committee on Committees, which, yes, is a real thing. 

The Committee on Committees is a group of leaders in either the House or Senate, depending on where the bill is, and they decide which committee should be the first round of vetting for this bill.

Committees are topic-based, so, a bill dealing with drivers’ licenses would go to the transportation committee, and a bill dealing with how students learn to read would go to the education committee. 

First committee meeting = first vote

Committee meetings are the first big hurdle for legislation. After being assigned to a committee, a bill needs to then end up on that committee’s agenda — a call typically made by the committee chair, all of whom are Republicans thanks to the GOP’s supermajority in Frankfort. 

Once on the agenda, a bill will get “heard” by the committee. A lawmaker supporting the bill will present the bill to committee members and answer any questions they have about the measure. Sometimes, they may bring supporters of the bill to explain why the bill is important. 

They can also offer up something called a committee sub — short for a committee substitute bill. It is exactly what it sounds like: A different version of the bill that is getting subbed in for the existing version of the bill. If the committee approves to accept the committee sub, then that is the version of the bill they’ll vote on. 

Opponents to the bill can — but not always — testify against the bill in the committee meeting. This is typically at the discretion of the chair. 

After all of that, the committee will then vote on the bill. If it passes, it advances in the legislative process. If it doesn’t, it can be reheard in committee, but that isn’t guaranteed. 

Three readings, three days

Each bill must get three “readings” on the chamber floor, each one on a separate day. (“Chamber” means the House or the Senate.) 

They don’t actually read the entire bill on the chamber floor (can you imagine?). It is just an acknowledgement that the bill exists and is moving through the legislative process. 

The readings can happen before and after the committee vote, and the third reading happens at the same time as the full floor vote on the bill. 

Floor vote

A floor vote is when a bill faces an entire chamber for a vote. Each chamber has slightly different rules on how floor debates and votes go, but typically, a bill comes up for a vote, and the bill sponsor or another lawmaker backing it speaks briefly on what it is and why it should pass. 

Then other lawmakers can ask to speak on the bill and/or ask questions about it. Anyone can also bring up floor amendments — proposals to change the bill in question that will be decided, you guessed it, on the floor. But floor amendments need to be filed beforehand, and if they haven’t been filed to the exact copy of the bill being voted on at least 24 hours ahead of time, they’re typically a nonstarter. (In many situations, the exact version of the bill hasn’t been the working version of the bill for 24 hours, but that is the way things are run.)

The chamber eventually votes on the bill. If it passes, it heads to the other chamber. 

Repeating the process

After passing its first chamber, the bill will then need to repeat much of the same process in the second chamber. (So, if it started in the House, it does the process over again in the Senate, and vice versa.)

It needs to get assigned to a committee, pass out of committee, get three readings on the chamber floor and then pass out of the entire chamber. 

There is one situation where this doesn’t happen, though. Sometimes, lawmakers will file mirror legislation: Copies of the same bills, with one in the House and one in the Senate. If they both pass the same bill out of their chambers, they can shrink how long the overall legislative process takes. 

Concurrence

Once the second chamber votes to pass the bill, things can get a little wonky. 

If the bill did not change between the two chambers, it is considered passed and goes to the governor’s desk.

But if it did change between chambers, it needs to go back to the first chamber and they need to approve of the changes. If they do, to the governor’s desk it goes.

But if they don’t, the second chamber is asked to get rid of their changes to the bill. If they say yes, to the governor. If they don’t, then the bill goes to a place called a conference committee — basically when a bunch of folks look at the existing bill and come to a compromise about what it should look like, within the confines of the bill’s existing language. 

And if that still doesn’t work, the bill goes to a free conference committee — basically a group of folks free to do whatever they want to the legislation to strike some sort of agreement that both chambers will approve and then send to the governor. 

Once both sides come to an agreement

The bill heads to Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk for approval. He has 10 days to either sign the measure into law, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. 

What if Beshear vetoes a bill? 

If he vetoes a bill before the veto period — a break in late March and early April for Beshear to go through all of the bills and veto/sign them — the bill will then go back to the GOP-dominated legislature, which can and almost always overrides his veto. Both the House and the Senate need to vote to override a veto, and they need a simple majority of members of the chamber to vote to override. 

At that point, the bill then goes to the Kentucky Secretary of State, who is required to put the new law on the books. 

But if a bill gets vetoed after the veto period, the legislature cannot override it because they’re no longer in session. This situation rarely happens, though, because the GOP legislature works to make sure all of their controversial legislation gets passed before the veto period.

How long does all of this take?

Each bill is required to receive three readings on three separate days in each chamber, so the whole process typically takes about six legislative days — but they can make it five days by giving a bill a final vote in one chamber and then its first reading in the second chamber on the same day.

There are loopholes, though, to get things through faster, like the mirror legislation tactic. They can also take an existing bill that’s already advanced through some votes, swap out its language, and clear it that way.