Your Week 10 Legislative Update
Hello friends,
The first week of all day floor debate has been very eventful to say the least. Filibusters have occurred, while committees have been voting on which bills should go out to the floor for debate. Throughout the week, my office has been busy trying to find ways to amend my legislation onto other bills. In order to do so, my bill must be germane and not deviate from the subject that the original bill is about. A bill being germane with another bill means that they’re considered to be under the “same subject”. We will continue to find paths toward passing good legislation for the great people of this state.
On Monday, most bills discussed weren’t considered to be controversial but, LB894 from Senator Ibach mandates a certain amount of law enforcement credentials for a person elected as a sheriff in any county. LB894 had a decent amount of time dedicated to it. A few amendments were introduced to include educational requirements. The bill passed General File with little opposition. On the same day, my bill LB834 made it past the first round of debate with 32 yeas and no opposition. LB834 replaces the “temporary” dental license with a “resident” dental license. This bill will help keep postgraduate students in Nebraska and to learn the practice of dentistry with less red tape.
During Tuesday, most of the day was made up of senators opposing LB1170 which was introduced by Senator Riepe. The bill lowers the amount of weeks for folks to receive unemployment benefits from 26 to 16 weeks. Often, it takes 16 weeks for people to even begin receiving payment. Other states that have shortened the duration of unemployment had no reduction in their unemployment numbers, so to say that this will encourage people to get back to work sooner is untrue based on facts and data. Existing unemployment funds are targeted to be used by our governors office to help with property taxes. 60 million should not be used to balance our budget as it is not our money to use. It should be noted, that many states that shortened their unemployment duration ended up getting loans from the federal government to keep their unemployment funds solvent. The bill hasn’t had its full 8 hours of debate for General File but myself and other senators will fight tooth and nail to make sure this bill doesn’t make it to the next round of debate.
Wednesday was an incredibly long day on the floor. LB175, introduced by Senator Dungan, creates the Residential Tenant Clean Slate Act. A tenant is immediately eligible for clean slate relief if the eviction proceeding was dismissed, the judgment against the tenant was reversed or vacated, or if a writ of restitution is never executed. An amendment to the bill included LB1115 which allows landlords and tenants to demand a jury trial. Senator Slama spoke through most of Wednesday and continued her filibuster Thursday morning for the full 8 hours given for debate until around 12:30 pm. The bill failed to get 33 votes needed to end debate on the bill, making the bill indefinitely postponed. Senator Slama’s disagreements with the bill stemmed from her belief that this bill would violate property rights. The bill was then cut down to allow tenants to only use the clean slate provision once. The clean slate provision will be very helpful for tenants that weren’t evicted but had proceedings occur but were dismissed. Not passing this bill will hurt individuals that are low-income, especially hurting single mothers and their children. Finding affordable housing is more difficult than ever in Nebraska and not allowing folks to have access to affordable housing will drive up homelessness and poverty.
On Thursday, the legislature passed numerous bills on final reading and passed two very important bills through to final reading. Senator Hughes’ bill LB1035 establishes the Nebraska Prescription Drug Donation Act. This bill will allow individuals to donate unused prescription drugs which will then be dispensed to customers by pharmacies. Senator Dungan’s bill, LB857 creates the Nebraska Prenatal Plus Program which assists mother’s that have Medicaid and looks to lower the rate of low-birth weights, help with pre-term birth and avoid adverse birth outcomes. LB857 had Senator Bosn’s bill, LB933 amended on to the bill. This bill expands Medicaid coverage for glucose monitors for pregnant women with gestational diabetes. Both of these bills will be very beneficial for health care outcomes in the state and I’m looking forward to the next round of debate. |
