Another busy, busy week at the Capitol. There’s been plenty of debate on many bills that have amendments and last-minute changes that affect the host bill to various degrees. So while we might hear it on General File in one form, there can be many changes by second reading (Select). This may cause changes that have an adverse affect on the bills and result in changes in how Senators view their votes on the original bill.

On Monday, July 27 and Tuesday, July 28, the Legislature debated the Budget bill. It was passed to Final Reading, where it was advanced to the Governor’s desk by the Legislature.

On July 29, the Legislature again debated a typically rarely-used motion to suspend the rules and allow a Senator to bring a new bill despite the rule that bills to be considered in this Session are allowed to be introduced in the first ten days of a Session, which was in January. The week before, we debated the same motion made by a different Senator. The first motion passed but the second failed. In both cases, there were great concerns with the limited time left in the Session to properly include all members of the public who wanted to participate in hearings and to deal with new bills. I shared those concern and voted “No” in both instances.

The first bill, introduced by Senator Wayne, would mandate that cities with populations greater than 5,000, which would include Wayne and South Sioux City, which have one or more full-time law enforcement officers form a 7-person citizen advisory committee to oversee local police actions. The bill had a public hearing on Friday, July 31. There appeared to be equal testifiers in support and in opposition to the bill. It is unclear whether the bill will somehow make it to the floor for debate because it is not a priority bill and there are so few days left on the Legislative Calendar.
The second motion was brought by Senator Vargas but failed to get the required 30 votes needed to be introduced. Senator Vargas also filed a Legislative Resolution (LR 459) to have a study on the topic completed before the next Legislative Session. He also brought it before the Business Labor Committee as a proposed amendment to another bill (LB887) and a public hearing is set for 1:30pm on Thursday, August 6, 2020. In its current form, Senator Vargas’s amendment seeks to mandate certain regulations on meatpacking plants through December 31, 2021.

While I understand Senator Vargas’s intentions, there is simply not enough time to thoroughly investigate, process, and work through any new bill or this particular amendment on this topic. The people most likely to be affected by the Senator’s proposal on this topic, including those workers who live in District 17, deserve an opportunity to be heard. They deserve to hear from the meat processing plants, too.

District 17 is the home of the largest Tyson Foods plant in Nebraska, employing approximately 4,500 workers. The Legislature is in its last days of the 2020 Session, scheduled to adjourn August 13. An August 6 hearing date does NOT give sufficient time for residents of District 17 to shuffle schedules or to arrange to take off of work to travel to Lincoln for a hearing. Nor should they have to. Neither is there sufficient time to have the issue debated on the Legislative floor.

I appreciate Senator Vargas filing Legislative Resolution 459 (LR459) for an interim study to review the effects of COVID-19 on the safety of workers in Nebraska. It is a wiser and more practical approach to this issue. In an interim study, rather than requiring people wanting to be heard come to Lincoln to testify, members of one or more Legislative committees can travel to the people. I am looking forward to attending and listening in sessions in District 17 to hear from workers and processors alike.

I will note that prior to the debate on this motion, I had not heard from a single meatpacking worker with concerns about the plant in District 17, although I have spent nearly all of my time in the District since March and my staff has kept me informed of calls daily. I called the Governor at an early point in the pandemic to make sure his office did more to get the messaging out to employees at the plant who speak so many different languages. The Governor started to ramp up testing and he started conducting press conferences in Spanish a couple of days a week. His office also provided documents in several languages and made public service announcements to make plant employees aware of the ways to stop the spread of COVID-19. I also contacted Tyson Foods early on to make sure they were exercising best practices to look out for workers at the plant and I received a copy of Tyson’s commitment to its workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that Tyson’s commitment to the health of their employees, employee families, and to the community reflects a deep consideration of all. It is also important to note that Tyson recognizes its reliance on the continued health of its employees. It was evident to me that Tyson was acting in good faith on the USDA and UNMC recommendations when Tyson closed the plant down for six days for cleaning and modification of work spaces.

Dakota County had a large number of positive cases of the virus reported when intensive testing was initiated in the area. It is comforting to see the number of positive cases steadily decline. I credit residents and businesses in District 17 that have worked hard to stop the spread of COVID-19 through frequent hand-washing, social distancing, and other recommendations of the Governor and the Nebraska Department of Health.

It is true that even one death is too many and my heart goes out to the families and friends throughout the State who have lost loved ones to COVID-19. Together we can continue to serve the needs and preserve the safety of District 17 workers and residents by TAKING enough time to really listen. Again, I look forward to hearing from my neighbors at the listening sessions that will take place on the issue.

On Wednesday, July 29, the Legislature had first round debate on LB814, which would prohibit abortions that dismember an unborn child in order to cause its demise. As you might expect, this is an emotional issue for many in the Legislature. I fully support LB814 and, although it stalled on the first round of debate, I am hopeful LB814 will return to the floor once again in this Session.

We also heard second round debate on LB632, which proposes we adopt the Broadband Internet Service Infrastructure Act and provide for certain broadband and Internet-related services. This is an issue of particular importance to those residents of District 17 who struggle with accessing and meeting their increased need for broadband service.

On Friday, July 31, there was debate on LB147, which failed to move on by one vote. LB147 was a teacher-requested bill by the Education Committee and I am disappointed that after working on this bill for over four years, it failed by one vote. LB147 would have been a tool for teachers to act in a situation to protect themselves and other children from an out-of-control outburst by a student that might present harm to themselves or others. I supported LB147 and the training teachers would have received under it. It was a disappointment.

There were several bills passed on Final Reading and presented to the Governor, including several bills designed to provide greater transparency and best practices for housing juveniles at Nebraska Youth Rehabilitations and Treatment Centers (YRTC).

Much has been done—yet there is still so much to do. The current week may see more debate on property tax relief, the State’s incentive program to attract new businesses, and a bill to aid the University in pursuing federal funds with some state match for its NExT project. Stay tuned, the Session is not yet over.

As always, I invite you to contact my office by phone 402.471.2716 or by email at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov