FRANKFORT, Ky. - The Kentucky General Assembly is limiting their session as concerns over COVID-19 remain.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, announced Thursday they will be meeting four times until Sine Die April 15. They say they will continue to work on passing a budget as well as other bills that could help Kentucky families hit hard with economic hardships as a result of closure related to the Coronavirus.

“If you don’t believe that our economy is in a downward spiral you are living in a cave,” said Stivers. “We are going to have to have some things out there.”

The announcement comes after several organizations have called on the legislature to pass a budget and adjourn as quickly as possible.

“Our priority from day 1 of this session has been the budget, it is much more difficult to pass a budget than just say we are going to pass a budget, we passed a budget out of the House on March 6, The Senate will pass theirs today” said Osborne. “There are obviously some significant differences between those two budgets and it will require some time to reconcile those differences but we will get those documents together, appoint a conference committee and get the conference committee working as soon as possible with the intent of having an agreement by the time we get back here next week.”

In the meantime, the legislature will be limiting their staffing levels.

“We’re being very thoughtful about this, we’re following as close as we can the CDC protocols but we still have important business including but not limited to the budget,” said Stivers.

The legislature will meet March 26th, April 1 to work on passing budget bills and other priority pieces and then April 14 and 15 to override any vetoes issued by Gov. Andy Beshear.