New legislative leaders also have new members to wrangle.

22 newly minted members of Kentucky's General Assembly were welcomed to Frankfurt earlier this month.

A few weeks ago, I caught up with Boone County State Senator Steve Rawlings of the 11th State Senate District.

He replaced John Schickel, who retired after 15 years of lawmaking.

Rawlins is not new to Frankfort as he served one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives before running for and winning his Senate seat.

I talked with him recently about his committee assignments and priorities for this legislative session that resumes in two weeks.

That and our continuing series on the Kentucky General Assembly's freshman class of 2025.

Let's talk about when you were in the House, the kind of legislation that you're most proud that you were a part of there and what you hope for being a senator.

Okay.

Got to enjoy running a lot of bills because they were constitu it generated bills.

And so I appreciated the fact that people would share their ideas with me and I would run these bills.

And in the Senate, we're limited this time.

It was kind of kind of an agreement not to run so many bills.

But I enjoyed being on the Education Committee.

An issue came up in Boone County where this kid did a kill list of his friends, and they put this kid right back in the school that he did with the other kids that he threatened to kill.

And so the parents were up in arms.

So I went to school board meetings.

Anyway, in the end, I was able to contribute to our discipline bill and contribute to that bill.

The prior session.

And so that was really great timing that I could help with that to make classrooms and teachers and students safer and more secure in their classrooms.

Do you still think that's an issue that's worth pursuing in a greater magnitude even in 2025?

Most definitely, yes.

So there is there is proposed proposals being made right now to keep working on that, because we need to.

We need our teachers to feel safe and to be safe and in order to attract them and retain them.

So that's that's pretty much a priority.

Yeah, we know that student discipline and school discipline is an issue, as we've heard that from educators, and say it's a disincentive to pursue the education field.

And we know that in the House they've actually broken off the committees and education committees.

So when in the Senate, what are the committees that you'll be a part of?

And is education one of them?

Education, again, before I was on Judiciary, so I'm not on Judiciary, I'm on banking and insurance, on health services, approach Appropriations and revenue co-chair on the subcommittee, the budget Review Subcommittee for Education, some co-chair on that and I'll total them.

And seven committees includes capital planning.

So I don't know if I named them a lot.

Seven of them last quite the last time in the House.

We generally were on three committees.

I was on three committees.

But less members.

More committee.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I'll have to see how that works out and shuffle the workload around.

But I'm I'm excited about that.

I'm enthused about that because I want to learn new things like banking and insurance.

It sounds interesting to me, and I've had some background in different areas.

Some of those new committees will will bring some new opportunities.

So talk to us about your life before being a lawmaker.

What's your profession and background?

I'm an attorney.

I'm a licensed attorney, but I've been involved in so many different things.

I I've been blessed to be able to I've built three homes.

I've published a book and and I've worked in higher education.

I got to teach teach some and write some and curriculum.

And so I've got to do a lot of different things.

So I've enjoyed having a diverse background.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What is it you're really passionate about when it comes to issues that affect your constituents there in northern Kentucky that you hope you can be a part of some solutions and public policy solutions in this upcoming legislative session?

One of the things that I ran on that was very important to our people was school choice.

So that's no longer on the table for now, but we need to tweak other other ways of looking at that and seeing what we can do with those things.

But I'm socially conservative, so I'm interested in strengthening families, parental rights, protecting the innocence of children.

And I was thinking about how people like me grew up in a wholesome environment.

So I want to do anything for the kids that we can encourage growing up in a wholesome environment and let kids be kids and not saddle them with adult issues.

So those sorts of things and so there's a lot to do in the education field.

I think there's been a trend away from parental rights and the schools trying to raise the children.

So, you know, I want to make sure that parents know everything that's going on and have input.

So when the session is over on in the end of March, what do you hope you can say you helped get accomplished for your constituents and for the state of Kentucky?

The bills I've been working on, for instance, one is restoring religious liberty.

It's based on religious freedom restoration ex reference.

So 28 states have reference and we have a refer, but ours is three sentences long and there's no protections and no teeth to it.

So so I want to get that bill through.

I've had a hearing on that bill the past two sessions and had a good vote on it, but for some reason they didn't move the bill ahead.

So that type of bill and then I've got a bill that's transfer and death deed that allows a person to sign over their home to a name beneficiary or a child.

And it would help so many families with end of life issues that they could just fill out this form and file it as an affidavit.

It's in the form of an affidavit.

But there's people from all over the state that are very interested in that bill.

So my bills are kind of in that vein.

And of course, where I live, it's economic development, too.

With the airport right there, it's booming up there.

And we are really a driving force in the economy.

So I'll always keep that in mind to see what I can do in that regard.