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Thank you for visiting my website. It is an honor to represent the people of the 17th legislative district in the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature.
You’ll find my contact information on the right side of this page, as well as a list of the bills I’ve introduced this session and the committees on which I serve. Please feel free to contact me and my staff about proposed legislation or any other issues you would like to address.
Sincerely,
Sen. Joni Albrecht
I am heading home to spring weather and calving season–one of my most treasured times of the year. The fresh air, the new life, and watching winter turn to spring uplifts my soul after a grueling week in Lincoln.
The majority of the past week has been spent debating Senator Kathleen Kauth’s bill–LB574 (Let Them Grow). It has been a very emotional and taxing week. I am working hard on behalf of ALL Nebraskans. After lots of debate, the bill passed to the initial Enrollment and Review process on its way to Select File. I am proud to support this bill and protect the children of Nebraska. There is an amendment to this bill that will allow medications to be used, but no surgical intervention for minors. I don’t see a path forward using this amendment as the opponents to this bill have told us that we would be blocked from voting on this bill.
Last Friday, March 24th, my last bill for this session, LB441–Repeal Obscenity Exemption, was heard in the Judiciary Committee. I have heard from many people across the state that this bill is needed to protect children from obscenity and child pornography. They are concerned about the books and materials they are finding in their school libraries. One testifier stated, “There is a history of legal court cases that help determine what is obscene. Also obscenity and child pornography is not protected speech according to the First Amendment. The ALA (American Library Association) even states that fact on their website.” I, too, am concerned as a grandparent of children in the K-12 public school system.
Bill Update
This week we begin floor debate from 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. as public committee hearings finished up last Friday. This makes for very long days and much will be discussed as many high profile priority bills will be coming up for debate on the floor. On Tuesday, we will finish debate on Senator Wishart’s LB276–Adopt the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Act and the Appropriation Bill that accompanies it. On Wednesday we will begin floor debate on the Revenue Committee’s priority bill LB754 which will reduce individual and corporate income tax rates at the request of Governor Pillen. Senator Brewer’s LB77 (Concealed Carry) and Senator Lowe’s LB376 (Change provisions of the Nebraska Liquor Control Act) will be debated on second reading.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
The majority of the past week has been spent debating the General Affairs Committee’s priority bills–LB376 (Change provisions relating to the importation of alcoholic liquor into the state under the Nebraska Liquor Control Act) and LB775 (Redefine a term under the Nebraska Racetrack Gaming Act and change and provide powers and duties for the State Racing and Gaming Commission). LB376 has been moved to Select File with amendments and LB775 has been amended and moved onto the Enrollment and Review Initial.
This past week we also debated Senator John Cavanaugh’s bill LB552 which extends the dates for the Legislative Mental Health Care Capacity Strategic Planning Committee for one year. This bill was one of the Executive Board’s priority bills. This bill was moved to the Enrollment and Review process with amendments. After debating LB552, we moved on to Senator McDonnell’s bill LB103 which would correct two items following the passage of LB700 in 2022. The first item is to expand the definition of school plan employee for those teachers employed by state agencies to include teachers not covered by the State Code Agency Teachers Association (SCATA). This would impact a few (less than 15) teachers that are employed by the Department of Education not represented by SCATA. The second item in LB103 is to correct a date after the passage last year. LB700 had an effective date of July 1, but also contained an emergency clause. As the bill was signed by the Governor on March 4, 2022, the July 1 effective date currently in statute is amended to reflect the actual effective date of March 4, 2022. This bill was also advanced to the Enrollment and Review Initial with amendments. This was one of the Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee priority bills
This week, my final bill will be heard in the Judiciary Committee on Friday, March 24th. This will be the last day of public committee hearings.
Bills to Watch
Just a reminder that the Nebraska Legislature does business for 2 years otherwise known as a biennium. Bills that do not get voted out of committee may stay in committee and can be rolled forward into the 2024 session. Other bills voted out of committee and not debated on the floor will return in the 2024 session.
Governor Pillen and I visited Pender Public Schools on Monday, March 20th. Both he and I really enjoyed our tour and meeting many of the teachers and children. I am always proud to get back to Lincoln and brag on what is happening in my schools in District 17. As always Pender is doing an awesome job.t.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
The majority of this week has been spent debating Senator Linehan’s priority bill, LB753 as Amended by AM338–Adopt the Opportunity Scholarships Act and provide tax credits, which has moved on to the Enrollment and Review process. We will have four more hours of debate once it reaches Select File.
Highlights of this bill include:
Bills to Watch
I always appreciate hearing from constituents and seeing them when they come to the Nebraska State Legislature. If I am on the floor, I do not leave to visit with constituents as I need to hear the debate and make a decision about the bill being debated as I am first up to hit my button when the bill comes to a vote. If you would like to see me when visiting the Legislature, please call my office and set up a time to meet with me.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
The majority of this week has been spent debating Senator Brewer’s priority bill, Constitutional Carry (LB77), which has moved on to the Enrollment and Review process. We will have four more hours of debate once it reaches Select File.
This week, I will have four bills being heard in committee.
Bills to Watch
I would like to congratulate the Pender Pendragons Girls Basketball team on beating Oakland-Craig for the Class C2 State Championship. What a great way to end a wonderful season!
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
We are over one third of the way through the 90-day session. It has been a busy week of debating bills on the floor and listening to those coming to testify at public hearings on bills in the Education and Revenue Committees.
Bill Updates
Priority bills will begin being debated this week.
Bills to Watch
On February 28th, we are on day 35 of a 90-day session. For the rest of this session priority bills will be heard, then bills pertaining to the budget, and then any other bills that made it out of committee to General File.
When these bills come to the floor and I sign on to them, I am confident they will not be amended in a way that will change the bill. I make my decisions about bills after the full floor debate. There is much work to be done in the days ahead.
Road repair updates
I have heard from many constituents over the past few weeks about concerns on road conditions and need for repair. I visited with the Nebraska Department of Transportation about these concerns and here is the update I received from their office. These projects are scheduled to begin this year or will resume work not completed in 2022.
One note–there may be delays to these projects based on weather conditions or other factors.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
It has been a busy week with a change in our daily schedule. We have been having floor debate over appointees and bills that have made it out of committee in the morning. In the afternoons, we have been holding our committee hearings to make sure all bills introduced receive their public hearing.
Next week, I will have three bills up for public hearing.• LB605–Art Therapy Bill–This bill will amend sections of the Uniform Credentialing Act and Mental Health Practice Act to provide for licensing of qualified art therapists as Licensed Mental Health Practitioners and Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioners with a credential as a Certified Art Therapist.
LB606–Pregnancy Help Act–This bill encourages increased private contributions to pregnancy help organizations in Nebraska through the creation of a tax credit. Pregnancy help organizations serve under-supported pregnant women by providing services to them at no cost that include pregnancy testing, pregnancy and prenatal care education, counseling, food, clothing, housing, transportation, parenting and life skills classes, child care, licensed medical care, referrals to additional community services and material help, personal relationships, and strong local support networks, all of which are crucial for their physical, emotional, and familial well-being.
LB637–Open Meetings Act–This bill will require that members of the public be afforded the opportunity to speak at any public meeting subject to the Open Meetings act.
On Tuesday, February 14th, I had the opportunity to meet with Leadership Wayne when they came to visit the capitol. I met with a wonderful group of future leaders in the morning and then we had a meeting with Governor Jim Pillen in the afternoon. It is always wonderful to meet with my constituents at the capitol and see what is going on in my district.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
Over the coming weeks, we will have many four day work weeks to follow along with three day weekends. Over the past 3 weeks we have heard over 300 bills. As we move forward in the legislative session, we will move into floor debate in the mornings for bills that have moved from their respective committees to General File and have committee hearings in the afternoon for bills still needing a public hearing.
In the Revenue Committee, I have heard the bills that Governor Pillen is proposing in a package. These bills will be passed out of committee and sent to the floor on General File. These bills will be a benefit for ALL Nebraskans as they keep us competitive with other states around us and help bring tax cuts to families and businesses through individual tax credits, corporate tax credits, social security tax cuts, and more. Here is a little bit about each bill in the Governor’s tax package.
On February 2nd, I attended the NE Chamber banquet and sat with the group from Wayne. I enjoyed visiting with Luke Virgil, Wayne Area Economic Development; Wes Blecke, Wayne City Administrator; and Chele Meisenbach, Ameritas. I would like to congratulate those that received awards from the NE Chamber.
Tuesday, February 7th, I had the pleasure of greeting Lexi Bodlak, State FFA president and the other FFA officers while they were visiting the capitol. They sat in on the Agriculture Committee’s morning hearing where I introduced LB442–The Livestock Friendly County Funding where I asked for money to be transferred into the Livestock Growth Act Cash Fund administered by the Department of Agriculture. The grant program was set forth in §54-2803.
Finally, I plan to introduce a Legislative Resolution (LR) congratulating Jack Schlickbernd of Wayne, NE for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout through his community service project. Jack was inspired by his love of baseball and his desire to honor veterans and chose to install a Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Seat of Honor and other major league stadium seats at Paul Eaton Field in Wakefield, NE. Congratulations, Jack.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
This week was the first week of full day hearings. It made for some long days. Many bills were hot topics and had many testifiers coming to share their viewpoints for or against the bills being heard.
Bill Updates:
Upcoming Bills:
This upcoming week I have three bills being heard in committee.
We have now completed 22 days in our 90 day session. There is much work to be done as we continue moving forward in this legislative session.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
This week found me very busy with my first committee hearings. I serve on the Education Committee which has hearings on Monday and Tuesday followed by the Revenue Committee hearings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Committee hearings began at 1:30 p.m. and three bills were heard on each day we met.
This next week finds me introducing LB626–Nebraska Heartbeat Act to the Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday, February 1st beginning at 1:30 p.m. The Nebraska Heartbeat Act would provide babies who have a heartbeat protection under the law from abortion. The Nebraska Heartbeat Act would require that a doctor, before proceeding with any abortion, first perform an ultrasound in accordance with standard medical procedure to listen for a fetal heartbeat. If a heartbeat is present, an abortion may not be performed. There are exceptions in this bill for rape, incest, or a medical emergency. This only affects intrauterine pregnancies which excludes ectopic pregnancies (outside of the uterus), IVF procedures (embryos are created in a lab outside of the lab), and miscarriages (no heartbeat present using an ultrasound). The Nebraska Heartbeat Act is about one thing: protecting babies who have heartbeats from elective abortions. A heartbeat is a universal sign of life. We also know that abortion stops a beating heart. We envision a Nebraska where EVERY life is celebrated, valued, and protected.
The other bill I am introducing in the Revenue Committee is Governor Pillen’s priority bill LB820—The Agricultural Valuation Fairness Act. This bill goes before the Revenue Committee on Friday, February 3rd at 9:30 a.m. in Room 1524. This bill was introduced during Governor Pillen’s State of the State speech on Wednesday, January 25th. LB820 is a structural reform of property valuation for agricultural and horticultural land for tax purposes in Nebraska and changes the tax valuation from market based valuation to an income potential valuation. The bill implements an Agricultural Land Valuation Committee to establish appropriate capitalization rate limits. The total value of all agricultural and horticultural land can NOT increase more than 3.5% statewide. Nebraska is an outlier in how it values its ag land. States such as Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota utilize an income based assessment to value their ag land. Agricultural land values are once again expected to face double-digit increases across the state. Implementation of this bill for 2024 will limit those increases to 3.5%, potentially reducing agricultural land valuations by $7.5 BILLION. The total valuation of agricultural land in Nebraska is $89.4 BILLION.
The public can testify at a Committee Hearing. You need the Legislative Bill (LB) number, the date of the hearing, and the room it is being held in. When you have that information, you can travel to the State Capitol and testify in person or you can submit written testimony. Go to nebraskalegislature.gov/bills—under search current bills enter the bill number. Click on Submit Comments Online. The deadline to submit your testimony is clearly set and the instructions are easy to follow. Additional information can be found at nebraskalegislature.gov/committees.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
Well this week found us finishing Day 12 of Session. It has been a busy 12 days. Bill introduction was completed on Wednesday and we adopted the Permanent Rules on Thursday. Now it is time to get ready for Committee Hearings and moving my bills forward.
I introduced 13 bills this session. Some of the bills I introduced I brought back from last session as I felt it was important to continue working to move them forward. Now that bill introduction has taken place and permanent rules have been adopted, we are ready to move forward with the work we were elected to do. Until Permanent Rules were successfully advanced, we couldn’t move forward to committee hearings.
There were 812 bills introduced and 30 Constitutional Amendments. Here is a list of the bills I introduced:
LB 440—Change provisions relating to certain school taxes and special funds
LB 441—Change provisions relating to obscenity
LB 442—State intent to transfer funds to the Livestock Growth Act Cash Fund
LB 443—Change provisions relating to compensation for total disability under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act
LB 605—Change provisions of the Mental Health Practice Act ot include protections and requirements for certified art therapists
LB 606—Adopt the Nebraska Pregnancy Help Act and provide tax credits
LB 626—Adopt the Nebraska Heartbeat Act
LB 635—Provide requirements regarding access to digital and online resources provided for students by school districts, schools, and the Nebraska Library Commission
LB 636—Prohibit political subdivisions from restricting certain energy services
LB 637—Require members of the public to be allowed to speak at each meeting subject to the Open Meetings Act
LB 638—Adopt the Nebraska K-12 Cybersecurity and Data Protection Act
LR24CA—Constitutional amendment to eliminate the State Board of Education and provide for the Governor to appoint the commissioner of Education
It was also my pleasure to introduce Legislative Resolution 25 extending sympathy to the family of former Senator Pat Engel. Every week I will introduce the bills I am carrying and provide more information about them.
There are a lot of bills that I did not sign on to or will not speak on until they come to the floor for debate. Please feel free to call or email my office to let your voice be heard. I would also encourage you to participate in the committee hearings by coming in person to testify or submitting written testimony or comments through the Nebraska Legislature website (nebraskalegislature.gov). In order to have comments or testimony in the record, you must go through the comment portal once a hearing has been scheduled. If you are submitting testimony or comments, you will be asked for a good email address as you will be asked to verify your comments. If you don’t verify your information, your comment or testimony will not be in the record. You must submit written comments or testimony by noon the weekday before the hearing. If a hearing takes place on a Monday, then your testimony or comments will need to be submitted by noon the Friday before.
On Wednesday, January 25th, Governor Jim Pillen will give his State of the State address and will introduce his priority bills for the upcoming year. I am pleased to carry the Agricultural Valuation Fairness Act for Governor Pillen. In this bill, we will be implementing the Agricultural Land Valuation Committee to establish appropriate capitalization rate limits. This committee will determine assessed values using the income-based approach and these valuations will be implemented by county assessors. The assessed values determined by the Committee will be developed using income and expense information from the USDA, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, landowner surveys made available to the committee, or other sources that yield reliable information. This bill will go into effect in 2024 and will be capped at 3.5% per year.
As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by contacting me by calling (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.
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