The First Session of the 108th Legislature is now over half way through the 90 day session. March 14th was the last day for senators and committees to declare their priority bills. Priority bills are considered ahead of all other bills during floor debate. The only exception is budget bills. Each senator is given one priority bill and committees are given two priority bills and the speaker’s office is given 25 priority bills.

The first Transportation and Telecommunications priority bill is LB683. The bill, with committee amendments, creates the position of state broadband coordinator and establishes the Nebraska Broadband Office whose director is to be appointed by the Governor. The main purpose of the Broadband Office is to administer federal funding for grants to deploy broadband. There are several duties assigned to the broadband office such as providing state advocacy of broadband issues on the federal level, coordinating broadband activity throughout the state, and developing a strategic plan, and developing an official Nebraska location fabric broadband access showing broadband availability.
The Second Transportation committee priority bill is LB412 introduced by Senator Geist. This bill allocates American Rescue Project (ARPA) funds that are eligible for broadband infrastructure projects in the Third Congressional District. This change would allow Capital Project grants to provide high-speed broadband service to an entire exchange area that includes cities of the second class or a village.

Two of my Transportation bills have been amended into LB412. The first is LB122, which is a bill to improve Nebraska’s One-Call Notification System Act. Currently, the Attorney General’s office is unable to address all complaints that are filed. Therefore, the AGs office focuses on the larger violations. LB122 creates a new process which requires all complaints to be filed with the State Fire Marshal. The bill also creates a new committee consisting of operators and excavators who will review, determine and assess the claims. Any violation where penalties are less than $10,000 will be addressed by the committee and any violations over $10,000 will be handled by the Attorney General’s office.

The second of my bills amended into the Committee Priority is LB722. This important bill will help sustain our broadband networks into the future. In Nebraska, companies receive Nebraska Universal Service Funds to help maintain existing networks. Unfortunately, there are still large areas of the State where there is no access. However, there is a potential for over $600 million in state and federal funding to build out these unserved areas. These grants could create a situation where two companies are being subsidized to serve the same area. LB722 ensures this does not happen and creates a process where only one company will be subsidized.

As always, contact my office with any questions or thoughts on legislation impacting District 23. You can reach my office at 402-471-2719 or bbostelman@leg.ne.gov