SENATE APPROVES SEN. WEST BILL NULLIFYING DEFICIENT BESHEAR ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS
FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 11, 2026) — The Senate on Wednesday approved Senate Bill (SB) 65, legislation sponsored by Sen. Steve West, R-Paris and co-chair of the statutory Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee (ARRS), which is a bill that nullifies several executive branch administrative regulations the committee flagged as deficient through the oversight process.
Each year, ARRS evaluates regulations filed by state agencies to ensure they comply with statutory authority and reflect the intent of the Kentucky General Assembly. When regulations are found deficient, the legislature may formally nullify them by legislation.
SB 65 serves as the General Assembly’s annual bill to address deficient regulations and to void several rules identified during this year's review process.
Regulation would have allowed a diabetes drug to serve as a weight loss drug at the taxpayers' expense
This year’s bill also includes regulations related to Medicaid coverage of certain GLP-1 medications used to treat obesity and related health conditions. The Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee previously reviewed a proposed regulation that would remove the existing exclusion on weight-loss drugs and raised concerns about cost, implementation and policy clarity. During a recent meeting of the statutory Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board, officials noted that Kentucky Medicaid currently covers GLP-1 medications only for FDA-approved medical conditions, such as diabetes, not for weight loss alone. These medications already account for a growing share of Medicaid pharmacy spending, with more than $234 million paid for GLP-1 prescriptions in 2025.
West said the legislation reinforces the legislature’s responsibility to review administrative regulations and ensure agencies properly implement the law as lawmakers intended, and not through unaccountable executive fiat.
“It’s important that regulations remain within the confines of the law and within the authority granted by the General Assembly. They need to serve to faithfully execute the intent of the statutes we pass, because the legislature is the policymaking branch of government,” West said. “When our oversight process identifies problems, it is our responsibility to step in and correct them, and we unfortunately have to do that regularly.”
SB 65 also nullifies a bad-faith regulation governing services available to relatives or fictive kin caring for children placed outside their homes through Kentucky’s child welfare system. In reviewing the regulation, legislators determined the regulation largely repackaged existing assistance programs rather than implementing the expanded support framework for kinship caregivers envisioned in Sen. Julie Raque Adams’ SB 151 from the 2024 Legislative Session.
“We have families in crisis and a foster care system that is stretched thin,” Adams said while speaking in favor of the bill. “To wait almost two years for regulations on a bill that the Governor signed into law has been incredibly frustrating for those families who are desperate for help. I want to make sure that kinship families have the state support they need and I’m fully committed to supporting, funding and implementing this lifeline for our families.”
SB 65 also prevents agencies from reissuing regulations identical or substantially similar to those nullified for a specified period, reinforcing legislative oversight of the administrative rulemaking process.
The bill includes an emergency clause and will take effect immediately upon becoming law. Once implemented the regulations outlined in SB 65 become null, void and unenforceable.
SB 65 now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Learn more about bills, committees and other important updates on the 2026 Regular Session at www.kylegislature.gov.