FRANKFORT, Ky. — Lawmakers have already passed seven bills this legislative session.

Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed six of them, so now they’re back in the legislature’s hands.

On Monday, Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne wrote a letter to Beshear, indicating they would move forward with votes to override his vetoes.

The governor said the bills would harm the state’s ability to respond to the coronavirus and ultimately lead to more cases.

“If their comment is, ‘we’re going to override your vetoes no matter what, and maybe we can talk later,’ I guess mine is, ‘we’ll see you in court,’” Beshear said.

Stivers and Osborne did not respond to requests seeking comment sent to their communications offices.

Most of the bills would limit the governor’s power in some way:

House Bill 1: Allows businesses and schools to reopen as long as they follow CDC guidelines or the governor’s executive orders, whichever is more lenient.

House Bill 2: Gives the Kentucky Attorney General more authority to enforce abortion regulations.

House Bill 3: Requires constitutional challenges to state law to be heard in the county they’re filed in instead of in Franklin Circuit Court, where the state capitol is and where a majority of the state’s main offices are.

House Bill 5: Limits the governor’s ability to reorganize state boards.

Senate Bill 1: Limits a governor’s emergency orders to 30 days unless they convene a special session to consider extending them.

Senate Bill 2: Creates more legislative oversight on the governor’s emergency powers.

House Democratic Leader Joni Jenkins said her caucus sides with the governor because she believes the legislature is not able to respond to the ever-changing nature of the pandemic.

“I think in the middle of a pandemic is a really, really bad time to start curtailing the governor’s powers,” Jenkins said.

The House and Senate formed a joint budget committee just before leaving town more than two weeks ago, but they haven’t met during the break.

Lawmakers have to figure out a one-year spending plan because COVID-19 disrupted the normal process last year. Historically, lawmakers have always passed two-year budgets in even-numbered years, when the session is longer, but they decided it was wise to pass a one-year budget last year due to uncertainty around the economy.

Jenkins says she’s hopeful Republicans won’t ignore the minority party during budget talks.  

“We are a very small minority, but as always historically been, the budget is one document that you would like to have some bipartisan buy-in on,” Jenkins said.

Outside of the budget bills and the first wave of vetoes, there are several major pieces of legislation still on the table, including a bill to legalize “historical horse racing” gaming machines again after the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled they were improper last year.

Jenkins says several other topics could be addressed that have bipartisan support, like criminal justice reform and a ban on conversion therapy.

“I think that we will see some good things come out of this session, maybe even some big things,” Jenkins said.

The last day of the legislative session is March 30.