Greetings from the Nebraska Legislature, at the time of publishing, this article will chronicle the events of week seven. We’re quickly approaching the halfway point of the legislative session, as day 30 of the 60 day session falls on February 20th. 

The Legislature officially passed its first batch of bills on Final Reading, which means that they’re waiting for Governor Pillen’s signature. All together there were 15 bills, all of which were carry over bills from last session. Some of them include Sen. Linehan’s LB299, which requires approval by the voters of a school district or educational service unit for the issuance of any bonds by a joint agency, Sen. Bostar’s LB308, the Genetic Information Privacy Act which seeks to protect consumers by requiring a genetic testing service to gain express consent from a consumer before they share, store, or use the genetic data.

On Monday the 5th, the body opened the week with three bills debated on the floor, including Sen. Brewer’s LB287, one of the Government, Military and Veteran Affairs Committee Priority Bills. LB287 cleans up a variety of election and open meetings act statutes. For example the bill clarifies the process for filling vacancies for our federal delegation. The bill mandates that a special election to fill any vacancies must occur within 90 days but no earlier than 75 days.

The Legislature also advanced Sen. Sanders LB771 to Select File. LB771 directs the Department of Veteran Affairs to provide grants relating to the United States Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (located on Offutt AFB) for undergraduate and graduate internships and academic programming to assist the said Accounting Agency with its mission of accounting for service members and American civilians missing from designated past conflicts. The bill intends to appropriate $200,000 from the General Fund to the Department for such grants.  

The Transportation and Telecommunications and Natural Resources Committees held their weekly hearings on possible legislation. My bill, LB1030, was also presented to the Transportation and Telecommunications committee. For those who haven’t seen previous summaries of the bill, LB1030 would make several changes to the County Bridge Match Program and would provide additional funding to ensure the program continues. The program provides matching state funds to our counties in order to repair or replace structurally deficient bridges on our county roads. 

By the time this article is published, all committee, speaker and senator priority bills will have been designated. You can find a list of these bills by going to the legislature landing page, clicking the Session Information tab, then clicking on Additional Activity and Information. On the expanding menu, you’ll find a link to the list of priority bills.

The legislature will not be meeting on the 19th, in observance of President’s Day. Constituents can 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.