A bill allowing county offices to renew driver's licenses, was green lighted to its next destination at the end of the second week of the 60 day lawmaking session in Frankfort.

Senate Bill seven passed the Senate today and will now head to the House for consideration there.

The measure is seen as a course correction from a 2020 law that created a regional office system for driver's licensing.

That's been under criticism.

Our Makenzie Spink has more on this popular proposal.

And tonight's legislative update.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they've heard from Kentuckians that the current regional licensing office system isn't working for them.

Constituents say the long lines and long drives are especially hard for those in rural areas.

Senate Bill seven aims to alleviate those problems by bringing license renewals back to county offices across Kentucky.

Our constituents have told us clearly that the current system for driver's license services is not working.

This is not about expanding government.

It's about restoring a service that once worked well and putting it back into the hands of those closest to the citizens that it serves.

The bill has a large amount of support, with 28 co-sponsors, including Democratic leader Senator Gerald Neal.

The bill passed the Senate with only one no vote.

Republican Senator Lindsey Titchener, who says her bill better, addresses the issue at hand.

My vote reflects this piece of legislation that, it is not addressing the issues.

And I feel we should have we should be passing a stronger piece of legislation to start the work on.

I've listened to my constituents.

I've listened to constituents all over the state of Kentucky.

And any comments on Facebook.

There are thousands of negatives about what we're moving through this chambers, but I understand the process is just getting started, and I recognize that the role.

Of the Beshear administration came up on the floor during discussion.

Several lawmakers saying that the burden to fix the situation shouldn't be on the General Assembly, and that it is going beyond the scope of their role to do so.

This is an attempt by the General Assembly to, fix something that is not actually their job.

It is the administration's job through the transportation cabinet to provide this, licenses to the public.

This governor has the power right now to fix this without any legislation.

Now, I can say that without fear of challenge, they can fix it right now.

Bottom line.

Senator Jimmy Higdon helps to work on this bill, but he expects that the issue of access to the regional offices will extend past this session.

Senate Bill 43 from last year made it legal for third party companies like triple AA to renew licenses, but it still hasn't started in practice yet.

Even when we pass it based on this bill, we passed last year's Senate Bill 43 that allow for third parties to issue license.

It might be a while before something is done.

So this is I've been saying for a long time, this is this is a Band-Aid.

This doesn't really fix the big problem.

The big problem is it will probably be addressed.

You know, believe it or not, less than a year from now, the filing deadline will have come and gone for the governor's race.

I have a feeling that this this issue will be a big topic.

Many senators expressed hope that the bill would be strengthened by its passage through the House.

If changes are made to the bill, it will come back to the Senate for a final vote.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Thank you.

Mackenzie.

Governor Andy Beshear says his administration is reviewing Senate Bill seven.

Yesterday, he talked about his concerns about revamping the driver's license system.

My concern about changing the system is everybody else is going to have to start from scratch now and go through possibly those six years of of of the learning curve.

Now, one one way that could help is if some of the vision screening could be done locally, because that's what's driving people in, you know, people who used to just renew online.

If they can do the vision screening in their own community and then go online.

That could resolve a whole lot of it as well.

That's why the governor says his administration might create a counterproposal to Senate Bill seven to be sent to the bill's sponsor.