FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Cassy Ross, Communications Director

Phone: (402) 471-2722

Email: cross@leg.ne.gov

Senator Megan Hunt Introduces Legislative Bill 835 to Allow 529 NEST College Saving Plans to Pay Student Loans

Lincoln, NE— 1.6.22 — Today, Senator Megan Hunt introduced LB 835 to provide an option that could help relieve student debtors’ loan balances:  the 529 NEST college saving plan. Currently, 529 plans allow families to contribute money to an account, which grows on a tax deferred basis and can be withdrawn tax-free if it’s used to pay for qualified education expenses, like tuition or textbooks.  In 2019, the federal SECURE Act created new flexibilities for 529 college savings plans, including one that allows these plans to be used to make student loan payments. However, the state’s existing statute prohibits Nebraskans from utilizing the newly granted 529 options. LB 835 will permit 529 planholders to use account assets to pay up to $10,000 in student loans per beneficiary to help. 

Data from the Department of Education show nearly a quarter-million Nebraskans have student loan debt, owing $7.7 billion to the federal government as of September 2020. Harmonizing state statute to match federal statute is not only good governance, but provides a small way to help address the rising national student debt crisis.  This is good news for parents and grandparents who work and save to set money aside for their child or grandchild’s education.  If 529 assets can be used to pay tuition, it makes sense that they can be used to pay student loans for past tuition as well.  

“Student debt holds entrepreneurs back from starting businesses, holds families back from buying homes, holds workers back from saving for retirement and holds our economy back,” Hunt said. “It’s time to start looking at realistic ways to address the crushing debt students live most of their lives with. Our economy isn’t money. It’s people. That should be our focus.” 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Cassy Ross, Communications Director

Phone: (402) 471-2722

Email: cross@leg.ne.gov

Senator Megan Hunt Introduces Legislative Bill 834 to Eliminate the Disability Subminimum Wage

Lincoln, NE— 1.6.22 — Today, Senator Megan Hunt introduced LB 834, which would eliminate the outdated statute that allows employers to pay disabled employees well below minimum wage. Under an 80-year-old federal provision, states can legally pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage based on their perceived productivity. While this law was initially well-intended to encourage differently-abled individuals to find work, today it keeps workers earning poverty wages and segregated from their communities. Dialogue around disability rights has changed since Nebraska passed the law allowing this, and we now know that “sheltered workshops” do not help move people with disabilities toward greater personal and financial independence. 

According to data released by the Department of Labor, some workers compensated under this exception to federal minimum wage laws are paid as little as 4 cents an hour. Data from Disability Rights Nebraska 2021 show that there are 12 organizations in Nebraska that pay 178 people a subminimum wage. 

“We’ve moved far beyond the days of this antiquated law, living in a world where we all know people with disabilities that hold jobs alongside people without disabilities and perform them well.  And yet, some people with disabilities in Nebraska are still being paid cents on the dollar,” Hunt said. “The work of disabled people is valuable and they should be compensated as such.  The shameful current practice of setting disability wages based on a worker’s efficiency and ability is exploitive, discriminatory, and dehumanizing. People with disabilities can be thriving, independent contributors to their communities when we pay them accordingly.”

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LINCOLN, Neb. 1.4.22 – Today, Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt and reproductive health advocates announced a new effort to expand access to abortion care in Nebraska. Sen. Hunt said the effort will focus on three bills when the Nebraska Legislature reconvenes, two of which she plans to introduce this year and one that will carry over from last year. Local medical professionals and civil rights advocates from the ACLU of Nebraska, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Women’s Fund of Omaha attended the press conference in support of the proposed legislation.

Sen. Hunt is proposing a repeal of the state restriction that forces Nebraskans with private insurance to purchase additional optional coverage for abortion care (LB 715). She will also seek changes to allow Certified Nurse-Midwives, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, and physician assistants to provide abortion care (LB 716).

The third effort focuses on passage of state bill LB276, which carries over from the 2021 session. The bill would repeal Nebraska’s ban on telehealth for medication abortion. Nebraska’s telehealth ban requires patients to take pills in the presence of a physician, despite the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to permanently allow medication abortion by mail.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a national reproductive and sexual health research and policy organization, states have passed 1,336 restrictions on abortion since Roe was decided in 1973 and a record 106 abortion restrictions have passed in 2021 alone. Access to abortion in Nebraska is already highly restricted and the Guttmacher Institute categorizes the state as hostile to reproductive rights.

Today’s press conference comes at a point of national uncertainty surrounding the future of reproductive rights. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban in a case that directly challenges Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of related precedent. Challenges to Texas’ 6-week abortion ban otherwise known as SB8, the most restrictive ban in the nation, are also pending in the courts.

Senator Hunt is welcomed into the distinguished 2022 class of 40 LGBTQ Leaders Under 40 list in the Business Equity Magazine. A search was conducted to identify young LGBTQ+ leaders who unequivocally stand up and out in their truth; who demonstrate exceptional leadership while making significant contributions in government, corporate, academia, non-profit, or small business. Each honoree has taken bold steps towards equitable futures for everyone. 

“Thank you so much to Business Equality Magazine for recognizing me as one of 40 Under 40 LGBTQ+ leaders across North America. It’s an honor to be included among so many visionary changemakers in business, education, government, the arts, and more,” Hunt commented. 

You can view the article here.

As a mom, I know firsthand that the decision about whether and when to become a parent is one of the most consequential life decisions we make. That’s why I believe so strongly that Nebraskans should have the freedom to make their own choices about what is best for their lives and their families, including decisions about abortion care.

Put simply, decisions about reproductive health care aren’t mine to make. They belong to Nebraskans, not the government.

Abortion is safe and legal in Nebraska, but lawmakers who are opposed to those rights have added layers of medically unnecessary barriers that make the procedure harder to access than it should be. These barriers fall hardest on Nebraskans who are financially struggling, most often young Nebraskans, rural Nebraskans, and Nebraskans of color.

Every time I speak with local health care professionals who provide abortion care, I hear a similar story: Barriers related to cost and travel are taking decisions out of Nebraskans’ hands, risking their health, and sometimes putting them on track to be pushed into poverty or further into poverty. Although abortion is a right, some Nebraskans effectively don’t have access, so the right means nothing to them.

This is unacceptable, but not unsolvable. In the 2022 legislative session, my colleagues must join me in expanding access to care rather than joining the stampede of other state legislative bodies that are tripping over themselves to take away people’s rights and tie doctors’ hands.

Many Nebraskans don’t know about our medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion care until they or someone they love is in need of abortion care. For example, currently, you must purchase an optional rider from your private insurance if you need abortion care coverage in most situations. This can result in unexpected bills totaling thousands of dollars. Legislation I’m introducing this session could change that.

I’m also seeking an end to Nebraska’s inexplicable and unnecessary ban on telehealth for medication abortion. Omaha World-Herald readers may have seen the announcement that the Food and Drug Administration is permanently authorizing medication abortion by mail. This is an exceedingly safe two-pill procedure legal in 31 states, but state law currently denies telehealth options to Nebraskans by requiring them to be in the same room as a provider, even if it’s just to swallow a pill and go home. A bill I introduced last year, LB 276, would repeal this requirement and bring abortion care in line with every other treatment offered in this state. It is important for all Nebraskans, but especially those in rural communities who cannot access care close to home.

Finally, we need to recognize that given the safety of abortion care, many duties that are performed by physicians can also be safely done by our skilled licensed advance practice registered nurses, certified nurse-midwives, and physician assistants. I will be introducing a bill modifying requirements to allow these practitioners to better support patient access.

I hope other state senators will join me and the majority of Nebraskans who support these measures and will reject any proposal that would add new restrictions.

The common theme with all of this is that a patient’s health should drive medical decisions, not politics. These issues belong between Nebraskans, their families, and their doctors. We must trust Nebraskans to make the right decisions for their personal circumstances with the guidance and support of medical providers they trust. I believe that to my core and I know I’m in good company. According to the Pew Research Center, most Nebraskans oppose outlawing abortion.

None of us can walk in each other’s shoes. Nebraskans believe in respecting others’ privacy, dignity, and bodily autonomy. We need to shop shaming and stigmatizing and start doing better to ensure every Nebraskan and their rights are respected.

We must do better, and I believe that we can.

Megan Hunt of Omaha represents District 8 in the Nebraska Legislature.