This week was an interesting one because it signified the calm before another storm of bill hearings for me. While I didn’t have any of my bills scheduled for hearing, I spent the time getting ready for next week, when hearings for four bills will be taking place. Those bills include one that will be part of my priority bill: LB694.

LB694 prohibits cities, villages, and counties from taxing or regulating distributed ledger technology. This is one of two important blockchain technology bills. These bills combined makes sure that Nebraska will be an attractive landing spot for entrepreneurs and be yet another tool to address Nebraska’s brain drain. We need to be sure that these business professionals are not running into a maze of different regulations put in place by cities and counties. Blockchain is going to revolutionize how we do business because it is precise, saves money, saves time, is autonomous, transparent, versatile and extremely safe since the information is on a shared (distributed) ledger.

It is my intention to combine that bill with LB695, which authorizes and defines smart contracts and authorizes the use of distributed ledger technology as prescribed. Smart contracts use code and math to to be sure that conditions are met. The funds are then transferred automatically. With the dawn of self-driving delivery vehicles, governments looking to streamline efficiency and save costs, banks looking for safer ways to do business and industries like healthcare and insurance, smart contracts are a fast-moving reality in business, agriculture and government. At the moment, both bills are still in committee but I hope to get them out shortly after the hearing for LB694, which will be on February 21.

Things only pick up from there as the hearing for my third compact bill is on February 22. LB686 is a Psychologist compact. This is much like my nurses compact in LB88 last year, though it applies to psychologists. This bill moves Nebraska forward in the areas of telemedicine.

On February 23, the Judiciary Committee will hold its hearing on my drone bill. LB 693 regulates and creates criminal offenses regarding the use of unmanned aircraft systems. This is the drone bill you might have read about in numerous articles over the past couple of months. We’re looking to make sure that people are not using drones for criminal activity. This is a public safety bill and I would encourage you to read the document in its entirety. It’s another one that is technologically advanced and complicated, though most who have read it fully have come away understanding the need for it. We have been very careful to protect the livelihood of Nebraska’s professional drone pilots.

That same day, the Government committee will be hearing LB 682 which provides consumer protection and civil relief for service members, active duty military and the National Guard. This bill would make it so that an active duty member of the military or National Guard that receives order to move out of Nebraska may do so without having to worry about paying early termination fees on contracts for services like cable, phone or gym memberships. It’s only fair that if a service member has no choice in their deployment, he or she should not be held accountable for the decisions of their superiors. There is currently federal law that addresses much of this, but a loop hole needed to be closed at the state level to be sure all are protected.

Friday is a recess day and Monday is President’s day so I am spending my time back in my district meeting with various constituents. Tuesday will be the 29th day of the session, meaning we will have almost hit the halfway point.

If you have any questions about my bills or any legislation in front of the legislature, please don’t hesitate to email or call my office at cblood@leg.ne.gov or 402-471-2627.

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Senator Sue Crawford and I will be partnering together for the second year in a row to do a combined City Hall at the Bellevue Public Library on Saturday, February 17th at 10:00 a.m. We will discuss our bills and highlight legislation that may be of interest to our residents. It’s free to the public and all are welcome.