Greetings from the Nebraska Legislature, we’re in the home stretch of our 60 day session. By the time of publishing, we’ll be within 12 legislative days of Sine Die. Though, those legislative days are spread over 3 weeks with many recess days. Full day debate on non-budget bills is scheduled to resume on day 51. 

Senator Hunt’s LB307 was passed to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law on February 29th, however, Governor Pillen vetoed the bill. Senator Hunt made a motion to override Governor Pillen’s veto however it failed to reach the necessary 30 votes. LB307 would have allowed municipalities or counties to create a syringe service program to distribute clean hypodermic needles to members of the public of all ages. 

Later in the week, the body began discussing the budget bills LB1412 and LB1413. Debate on budget bills started late Tuesday, and must be passed by day 50.  LB1412 was advanced to select file on the 13th after reaching a cloture vote, and LB1413 advanced to select file.

LB1412 is the mid-biennium budget adjustment which makes adjustments to the budget which the Legislature passed last year. The Appropriations Committee’s preliminary budget adjustment included an increase in appropriations of $56.7 million. The bill also includes appropriations for all State Agencies and Departments. LB1412 also included provisions to move unused American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds into eligible programs such as child care agencies, increasing the daily rate for rural assisted-living facilities, and workforce development grants.

LB1413 includes cash fund transfers which move funds already appropriated to a specific fund to another fund. One of the main provisions of LB1413 was a transfer of $70 million from the State Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to the General Fund. 

On the 15th, Senator Sanders’ LB771 passed Final Reading with 45 votes. The bill would direct the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to provide grants relating to the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting agency for internships and academic programming to assist the Department of Veterans’ Affairs with its mission. Specifically, this program seeks to retrieve and identify the remains of individuals who gave their lives for our country. The bill also would make appropriations of $200,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Veterans affairs to distribute for these grants.

Senator Brandt’s dark fiber bill, LB61, passed final reading on the 15th of March and will soon make it to the Governor’s desk. Dark fiber refers to the unused strands in an underground fiber optic line. Currently, there are fiber optic lines across the state that are not entirely used. This bill creates a new streamlined process for the leasing of dark fiber to serve unserved areas of the state. 

As always, constituents are welcome to 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.