Samara has hit the ground running in her fight for our 18th district residents. She’s passed a wide variety of meaningful legislation and, in 2023, was named Chairwoman of the newly-formed Families and Children committee. 

Samara has co-sponsored a number of bills that seek to improve healthcare and honor our military veterans. She has also worked on legislation that promotes pro-life policies and child welfare, such as strengthening the adoption program, protecting children from violence, and establishing the Employee Child-Care Assistance Partnership in Kentucky. One of Samara’s biggest campaign talking points during her first race revolved around workforce development; she has worked hard to find ways to promote technical education and eliminate barriers to enter the workforce.

2023 Sponsored Bills

• HB 104 includes abuse of a corpse by deviate sexual intercourse, sexual intercourse, or sexual contact as an aggravating circumstance. This means that if someone is convicted of this crime, they may be sentenced to a longer prison term.
• *HB 164 allows people who are at least 18 years old to work in the secure perimeter of a jail.
• HB 166 names and designates as the official pets of Kentucky domestic cats and dogs that reside in or have been adopted from Kentucky animal shelters or rescue organizations.
• *HB 248 requires certification for recovery residences and establishes requirements for recovery residences.
• *HB 387 reorganizes newly established legislative committees on Families and Children and Health Services.

2022 Sponsored Bills

• HB 185 allows the court to order a peace officer to seize a license plate from a person who is convicted of KRS 189A.010.
• HB 488 enhances a second or subsequent violation of an order of protection to a Class D felony.
• *HB 499 creates a new program called the Employee Child-Care Assistance Partnership (ECAP) in Kentucky. The ECAP program will provide financial assistance to employers who offer child-care assistance to their employees. The program will be administered by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).
• HB 615 prohibits the use of solitary confinement, with limited exceptions.
• *HB 730 adds definitions for “emergency medical services” and “medical clearance”; Designates who may transport respondents; Specifies the responsibility for the costs associated with transport; Decreases the period a person may be held pending certification from 18 hours to 12 hours; Establishes that a sheriff or certified peace officer shall not be required to stay at a facility accepting a patient unless the person is charged with a criminal offense; Establishes protocols for the transfer of a patient between facilities within the same network; Includes factors to consider in designating hospital districts.

2021 Sponsored Bills

• *HB 210 requires employers to provide adoptive parents with the same leave policies as they provide to birth parents, changes the applicable age of an adoptive child from seven to ten, and creates an exemption for specified categories of adoption.
• HB 211 requires the Cabinet for Economic Development to include information on the size and racial composition of program recipients in reports prepared by the Cabinet.
• HB 212 requires the child and maternal fatality annual report to do a demographic analysis by race, income, and geography. The bill would also require the annual report be sent to the Interim Joint Committee on Health, Welfare, and Family Services.
• HB 213 requires the secretary of the Personnel Cabinet to include state employee demographic information by program cabinet and department in the annual report of the Personnel Cabinet.
• *HB 231 clarifies the duties of the Treasurer and the Assistant Treasurer, and establishes a unified and integrated system of accounts for the Commonwealth.
• *HB 310 requires notice and hearings prior to parole of persons convicted of a Class D felony classified as a sex crime, and clarifies that inchoate offenses are included in the statutory offenses.
• HB 364 creates a new committee in the Kentucky General Assembly to study race and access to opportunity, and amends several statutes to require demographic data to be reported to the committee.

2020 Sponsored Bills

• *HB 276: AN ACT relating to licensing.
  Clarifies the eligibility for a special military license plate, provides a special military license plate sticker for spouses of veterans, and clarifies the proof required for a veteran designation on an operator’s license.
  It changes an active component member to a member of the Armed Forces of the United States; changes the veteran’s widow to the veteran’s surviving spouse; allows for the legally married spouse of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States to purchase a special military-related license plate and receive a sticker identifying the plate as that of a military spouse; updates the list of documents that can be used as proof of veteran status.
• HB 277: AN ACT relating to license plates for disabled veterans.
  Allows disabled veterans who are paid at the 100 percent rate for service-connected disabilities by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase disabled veteran license plates with no initial fee or renewal fee
• *HB 331: AN ACT relating to the Kentucky Educational Savings Plan Trust.
  Matches Kentucky law with the current federal law. In December 2019, the SECURE Act passed Congress and expanded the rules for 529 Accounts making two changes. First, it allows for funds saved through a 529 account to be used to pay for apprenticeship programs that are registered and certified with the United State Secretary of Labor. Second, it allows for funds saved through a 529 account to be used to pay for student loans.
• HB 390: AN ACT related to adoption leave.
  Requires employers to provide the same leave policies to adoptive parents as they provide to birth parents; changes the applicable age of an adoptive child from seven to ten; creates an exemption for specified categories of adoption
• HB 511: AN ACT relating to the donation of game meat.
  Allows for cooperative extension agencies and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, or any government agency for the purposes of education, promotion of hunting or fishing, to accept the donation of game meat for free meal distribution to individuals in need. 
• HB 565: AN ACT relating to the Treasury.
  A modernization bill for the Kentucky State Treasury, updating laws from the 1970s and early 1990s.

*An asterisk denotes bills that were signed into law.