It is so nice to hear that we have had rain this past week. Hopefully that didn’t delay planting but added some nice moisture to the soil. I received a tweet from the Nebraska DOT this past week with a reminder–“Drivers–be on the lookout for farm equipment this planting season! If you happen to come across a farm vehicle, slowing down and practicing patience is an easy and effective way of keeping both you and the farmer safe.”

On Monday, May 8th, Senator Ben Hansen added AM1658 cited as the Preborn Child Protection Act to LB574–Adopt the Let Them Grow Act. This amendment takes the language from LB626–The Nebraska Heartbeat Act and says “If the probable gestational age of the preborn child has been determined to be twelve or more weeks.” LB574 with AM1658 will come up for debate on Tuesday, May 16th. I have accepted the loss on LB626, but will support Senator Hansen’s amendment as I want to continue saving baby’s lives.

We finished this past week on Day 77 of the legislative session. We have 13 days remaining of this 90 day session. We still need to pass the budget as that is the only requirement of the legislature that must be done before adjourning on Day 90 on Friday, June 9th.

Bill Updates

•  LB705–Change provisions for the distribution of lottery funds used for education, transfer powers and duties, create new acts and funds, and change education provisions–This bill had second round approval on May 9th after amending it to add a high school graduation requirement and modifying a proposal intended to increase the number of Nebraska teachers. The amendment created the Nebraska Teacher Apprenticeship Program, which would be administered by the Nebraska Department of Education. The amendment also states legislative intent to appropriate $10 million from the Education Future Fund to another proposal that would provide recruitment and retention grants to Nebraska elementary and high school teachers. Finally, the amendment would require public high school students to complete and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid prior to graduating, beginning with the 2024-2025 school year. After four hours of debate, Senator Murman called for cloture and the motion succeeded on a vote of 42-1. Lawmakers then voted 39-4 to advance LB705 to final reading. (“Education package amended, advanced to final round”. Unicameral Update. May 9, 2023. http://update.legislature.ne.gov/?p=34298) I voted no to moving this bill to Final Reading as there are several bills that I don’t agree with in this package.
• LB583–Provide for foundation aid and special education supplemental aid under the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA)–This bill was brought to the floor by Senator Rita Sanders on behalf of the Governor’s office. LB583 would invest in Nebraska’s kids through the following mechanisms:
  • It inserts $1,500 per student foundational aid within the TEEOSA formula;
  • It expands State funding for special education by filling the gap between existing federal and State support and 80% of a district’s anticipated expenditures for special education. This function is outside of the TEEOSA formula.
  • Every School District in the State of Nebraska will be receiving some funding by the state. Special education funding will reach 80% funding. Every student is invested in by Nebraska.
    This bill had first round debate on April 4th and was advanced to Select File 39-3-7. Select File debate took place on May 9th where Senator Sanders added AM1636 to clean up some of the language in the bill. After four hours of debate, Senator Sanders called for cloture and the motion succeeded on a vote of 46-0-1. LB583 with AM1636 was voted to Final Reading on a vote of 43-0.

The week of May 1st, we continued to debate the budget. These bills were introduced by the Speaker at the request of the Governor and are part of the Governor’s biennial budget recommendations. There are three bills in the budget package. They are:

• LB814 which is the mainline budget and will amend LB817 into it to appropriate funds for capital construction. This was debated on general file Wednesday, May 3rd and was advanced to select file with a vote of 36-4-5. This bill came up again for debate on Select File on May 10th and was voted to Final Reading with a vote of 40-2-3.
• LB818 which is for fund transfers and will amend LB819 into it to change provisions relating to the Cash Reserve Fund (savings). This was debated on general file Thursday, May 4th and was voted to Select File 35-8. This was then debated on Select File on Wednesday, May 10th and was voted to Final Reading with a vote of 41-1-4.
• LB813 which makes adjustments to the appropriations and reappropriations for state operations and aid programs in the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. The adjustments will be used in programs where the forecasted cost has risen or decreased due to circumstances that were unforeseen when appropriation bills were passed two years ago and subsequently amended by the Legislature in 2022. This bill was debated on Select File May 9th and was advanced to Final Reading on a vote of 25-0-18.
  More detailed information regarding the Governor’s budget recommendations may be found in the 2023-2025 Biennium Executive Budget Recommendations, which may be viewed on the Department of Administrative Services State Budget Division’s website at https://das.nebraska.gov/budget/publications.html.

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.