Now other legislative moves, a bill that would reopen a road between the Capitol building where we are and the Capitol annex, which has been closed due to a threat assessment, not naming it as a potential security risk, made it out of the Senate Transportation Committee yesterday.

The legislation has been repeatedly championed by Senator John Schickel of Northern Kentucky.

One of the things I've done as state senator is I have field trips for people from my district.

They would enjoy the Christmas tree.

The Christmas decorations in the winter could enjoy all these things without even getting out of their car.

As we talked about in the committee last year, that threat assessment program did give alternatives and one of them was closing that road.

But there were also other alternatives.

They suggested closing several roads around the capital, including the road between the governor's mansion and the capital, the road on the other side and putting in checkpoints.

I think those are good, reasonable suggestions to unilaterally close a road that is so vital to the public and their understanding of how our state government works, I think is a big mistake.

If there's a reason to close that road.

My bill provides for that and it can be done very quickly.

However, Kentucky State Police Police Commissioner Phillip BURNETT is against reopening the road.

The state police provide security to the Capitol grounds.

In 2001 after 911.

Secret Service did do an assessment of these grounds, and one of their recommendations was the closure of the roadway between this annex building and the the Capitol.

And the reason for that is because it's so assessable to where if they were to have the opportunity, someone to have some sort of ill intent that they could drive a vehicle loaded with explosives right up near one of these buildings and detonate it.

Another survey that was done by federal Homeland Security, a security and resilience report that was conducted in June of 2021.

It also on top of the Secret Service security assessment, recommended a closure of that roadway and install barriers, bollards, those type things to to be able to limit vehicle traffic in between that roadway.

BURNETT also noted that the space between the Capitol and the annex is often used for protests and counter-protests, which also require additional security.

Senate Bill 75 will now be discussed and voted on in the state senator in the Senate.