Bill Commons

KY HB 749

died on adjournment

AN ACT relating to the establishment of the Office of Public Defense.

Kentucky · 2026 Regular Session · lower

Follow this bill’s action updates (Atom)

Subscribe in a feed reader. The feed covers recorded actions from the last 30 days; Bill Commons may record an action after it happened at the legislature.

Quick answers

Did KY HB 749 pass?

No. KY HB 749 died when the 2026 Regular Session adjourned without final action on it. Bills that die this way are sometimes reintroduced in a later session. Latest recorded action (2026-03-04): to Veterans, Military Affairs, & Public Protection (H)

What is KY HB 749 about?

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 16 to define terms; establish the Office of Public Defense within the Department of Kentucky State Police to acquire and transfer machine guns to qualified persons; establish the duties of the office and its director; require the director or designee to issue a transfer certificate upon transfer of a machine gun to a qualified person; require a qualified person who becomes ineligible to possess a firearm to return a machine gun to the office within 7 days of learning of his or her prohibited status; allow a qualified person to transfer a machine gun to another qualified person; establish the public defense fund; provide civil immunity to the Commonwealth, the office, and the office's director, officers, and employees in the performance of their duties; provide that the Commonwealth, the office, and the office's director, officers, and employees shall not be civilly or criminally liable for acts or omissions of qualified persons; amend KRS 12.020 and 15A.020 to conform.

Who sponsors KY HB 749?

B. Wesley, T. Huff, J. Hodgson and 4 others are the primary sponsors of KY HB 749.

Description

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 16 to define terms; establish the Office of Public Defense within the Department of Kentucky State Police to acquire and transfer machine guns to qualified persons; establish the duties of the office and its director; require the director or designee to issue a transfer certificate upon transfer of a machine gun to a qualified person; require a qualified person who becomes ineligible to possess a firearm to return a machine gun to the office within 7 days of learning of his or her prohibited status; allow a qualified person to transfer a machine gun to another qualified person; establish the public defense fund; provide civil immunity to the Commonwealth, the office, and the office's director, officers, and employees in the performance of their duties; provide that the Commonwealth, the office, and the office's director, officers, and employees shall not be civilly or criminally liable for acts or omissions of qualified persons; amend KRS 12.020 and 15A.020 to conform.

Introduced
2026-02-25
Latest action
2026-03-04 — to Veterans, Military Affairs, & Public Protection (H)
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Subjects

Sponsors

  • B. Wesleyprimary
  • T. Huffprimary
  • J. Hodgsonprimary
  • R. Dotsonprimary
  • J. Callowayprimary
  • S. Doanprimary
  • T. Robertsprimary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

Newest first

  1. 2026-03-04

    to Veterans, Military Affairs, & Public Protection (H)

    referral-committee

  2. 2026-02-25

    to Committee on Committees (H)

    referral-committee

  3. 2026-02-25

    introduced in House

    introduction

Versions

Documents

Votes

Not provided by source.

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26RS/hb749.html

Attribution

Data from openstates_api_sync, retrieved 2026-08-21T21:05:44.493618Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changesStatus and relationship changes

Session-wide evidence can include changes to other bills:

Bulk imports for this sessionSession dates and activity

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=KY&identifier=HB 749. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.