Beshear vetoes bills he says would make KY workplaces less safe, violate state Constitution

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday vetoed Republican legislation that he said would make workplaces in Kentucky more dangerous and several bills that he said were unconstitutional.

The General Assembly’s Republican supermajority is expected to easily override the vetoes when lawmakers return Thursday and Friday to wrap up the 2025 regular session.

Beshear in his veto message said House Bill 398 would “make Kentuckians less safe in the workplace and hand over much of the authority to regulate, investigate and enforce Kentucky workplace safety and health standards to the federal government.” 

The bill, approved along party lines, would limit state labor protections to a less stringent federal standard. Republicans touted it as a business-friendly move while unions assailed it as an “attack” on workers. 

Among the bills that Beshear deemed unconstitutional was one pushed by Americans for Prosperity, the anti-tax group financed by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch. Dubbed the REINS Act or Regulations from the Executive In Need Of Scrutiny, House Bill 6 would limit the authority of state agencies to issue regulations.

Beshear said the bill violates the Kentucky Constitution by giving the legislative branch a veto of administrative regulations issued by the executive branch. “The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled more than 40 years ago that the General Assembly cannot interfere with the Executive Branch’s authority to file regulations to carry out the law,” Beshear wrote in his veto message.

Beshear also vetoed a bill that directs how Kentucky courts should review disputes between executive branch agencies and the legislature. Senate Bill 84 says courts would have to interpret laws without deferring to a state agency’s interpretation of them. The legislation mirrors last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the precedent for the Chevron deference at the federal level. 

Beshear said SB 84 violates the separation of powers by prohibiting courts from deferring to a state agency’s interpretation of any statute, administrative regulation or order. “The Judicial Branch is the only branch with the power and duty to decide these questions,” Beshear said in his veto message

Calling it “another instance of legislative overreach that violates the Kentucky Constitution,” Beshear also vetoed Senate Bill 65, nullifying Medicaid regulations, including three that he said were before a subcommittee for informational review only.

Beshear’s office said he is allowing some bills to become law without his signature, including one to reduce the number of medical and mine emergency technicians (METs) at coal mines. The measure will reduce from two to one the number of METs required on shifts of 10 or fewer employees. However, it adds one additional MET for underground mines with over 50 workers and each additional 50 employees, the governor’s office said. Beshear said the bill was a “mixed bag,” as it reduces technicians at small mines, but increases them at larger mines.