FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky needed a new unemployment system before the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the Commonwealth is a step closer to getting one.

During Thursday's Team Kentucky update, Gov. Andy Beshear announced a range of efforts to resolve issues with Kentucky's troubled unemployment system, including a push to merge the Education and Labor Cabinets.

“We need more permanent fixes to ensure that if we ever go through something like what we have seen, that our unemployment insurance works better,” Gov. Andy Beshear said.

Beshear said his office is reviewing proposals from companies that want the job after the bidding process closed.

The governor’s office sought bids to overhaul the system in the summer but had to restart the process because of growing costs associated with cybersecurity.

“The first RFP process took too long, but if it hadn’t, we would not have gotten the tool that we need,” Beshear said.

But the process of selecting a company now that bids are closed won’t be easy and will likely involve some legal challenges, Beshear said.

“It does take a significant period of time, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see improvements in the short term,” he said.

Beshear unveiled a four-point plan on unemployment Thursday, including some previously-announced initiatives like seeking money for more permanent employees in the unemployment office, and a new identification system to keep fraudulent claims from ever being filed.

“This at least gets rid of the bots,” Beshear said. “This gets rid of the cyberattacks from other countries which we know that we have seen.”

One of the other changes Beshear wants is merging two cabinets that handled unemployment at different points during the pandemic: the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet and the Labor Cabinet. Beshear said it’ll make the unemployment system run more efficiently.

“It needs to be a part of a larger, more robust cabinet, where we’re not pulling people out of finance or public protection [cabinets], which we did, to come over in the future,” Beshear said. “This gives us a chance for cross-training and more resiliency if we are hit with something like this again.”

Labor Cabinet Secretary Jamie Link said the move will make Beshear’s cabinet more responsive to workforce issues in general.

“Making sure our economy, our education and training systems work for every family in the commonwealth, that’s what we’re driven to do," Link said.

Beshear needs approval from the legislature in order to reorganize his cabinet offices, but he said he’s going to start work towards that merger, and he’s confident Republicans in the majority will approve it.

An email seeking comment from a spokesperson for House Speaker David Osborne and Senate President Robert Stivers Thursday afternoon was not returned as of publication time.

Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman also served as the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet secretary until she stepped down last month. Her interim replacement, Mary Pat Regan, will become a deputy secretary in the Labor Cabinet, a title she previously held in the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet before Coleman left.

Beshear said no jobs will be cut as part of the consolidation.