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State Sen. Ralph Alvarado (R) of Winchester has been appointed to a newly created task force by the Kentucky Senate’s Republican leadership team.

The newly formed Cabinet for Health and Family Services Organizational Structure, Operations and Administration Task Force  will conduct business through the 2022 interim of the Kentucky General Assembly and will study organizational structure, operations, and administration of programs, policies, and procedures within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

A legislative task force is also known as a special committee. They are established by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (LRC) and function primarily during the interim, typically studying a specific topic.

The task force will report findings to the LRC by Dec. 1. for referral to the appropriate standing committee with jurisdiction over the policy area.

Sen. Alvarado looks forward to the task ahead.

“I am grateful to have been appointed to serve on this task force by Senate leadership and look forward to contributing,” he said. “CHFS is the largest executive cabinet in the state and is responsible for critical services, not the least of which includes child welfare. Anything we can do to improve the functions and efficiencies of the cabinet will directly benefit the children, families and individuals impacted by its operations. It will also do justice for the taxpayers who make its services possible.”

Senate leadership said that Alvarado’s past legislative experiences made him an obvious appointment.

“Sen. Alvarado has worked as closely with the cabinet as any other member of the state legislature and, as a medical professional, he is in tune with health challenges and needs,” Senate President Robert Stivers (R) of Manchester said. “His input as a member of this task force will be beneficial in its goal.”

Additional task forces formed during the 2022 interim session are:

• The Bourbon Barrel Taxation Task Force — Created to study the current ad valorem tax rate structure for bourbon barrel sales in the commonwealth.

• The Benefits Cliff Task Force — Created to review the impact of the public assistance benefits cliff on labor force participation, employment, wages, and benefit duration and usage in the commonwealth and develop public policy recommendations to support working families in transitioning off of public assistance into gainful employment and self-sufficiency.

• The Early Childhood Education Task Force — Created to conduct a comprehensive review of the commonwealth’s early childhood caregiving and educational structures and operations.

• The Emergency Medical Services Task Force — Created to study the provision of emergency medical services in Kentucky.

• The Executive Branch Efficiency Task Force — Created to study the effectiveness of current executive branch cabinet working procedures for administering services to citizens of the commonwealth.