Republican House Speaker David Osborne speaks to reporters on the House floor, Feb. 20, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
FRANKFORT — Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne has filed a resolution to stop Gov. Andy Beshear from participating in a national lawsuit against the Trump administration’s funding freeze.
Osborne, a Republican from Prospect, is the primary sponsor of House Resolution 64. The resolution restricts Kentucky’s governor and lieutenant governor from participating in litigation unless it pertains only “to interests particular to his or her office.”
Beshear adds Kentucky to Democratic AGs’ lawsuit challenging Trump funding freeze
The resolution recognizes the attorney general as the “the proper party to determine whether a legal action should be undertaken by the Commonwealth.”
Speaking to reporters Thursday, the speaker said the resolution is aimed at Beshear joining the federal lawsuit against the Trump freeze on payments. Beshear, a Democrat, announced his office was joining the lawsuit filed by Democratic attorneys general last week. The governor said he was doing so to get dollars “that the people of Kentucky are owed.”
“Based on the opinions of many in the legal profession and some constitutional scholars we’ve consulted with, he doesn’t have that right,” Osborne said. “We’re not doing this haphazardly. If he does have the right then, then certainly he will continue to have that, but if he doesn’t, then we want to make sure that he doesn’t continue to use it.”
During Beshear’s announcement, he said the move was similar to former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin joining lawsuits in his official capacity while Beshear was attorney general. Asked about that, Osborne said lawmakers had been critical of that too.
“We even said that Andy Beshear was the sitting attorney general as the chief law enforcement officer of the commonwealth and needed to be respected as such,” Osborne said.
The current Kentucky attorney general is Republican Russell Coleman.
In response, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley said in a statement that the federal government “has defaulted on its obligations to reimburse over $7 million to Kentucky.” That threatens ongoing infrastructure projects to run clean water to homes in Breathitt and Perry counties and fixing rockslides in Appalachian communities, she said.
“The Governor has rightfully sued to enforce written obligations by the federal government and has the Constitutional authority to do so,” Staley said.
Beshear reportedly said during a call with top Democrats last month that states with Democratic governors and Republican attorneys general need to have a separate legal and communications strategy to oppose Trump’s policies.
Beshear isn’t the only governor to oppose the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze in court. Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit last week against five federal agencies, alleging that Pennsylvania is unable to access $1.2 billion in federal grant funding appropriated by Congress and that another $900 million is being held up in an undefined review process.