This week finds us wrapping up two weeks of full day public hearings ending on February 10th. We start floor debate on bills that have been voted out of committee on February 13th. These general file bills will be debated until noon each day. Hearings will still be held in the afternoon through March 24th, Then full day floor debate will begin. You can keep track of the committee schedules on the legislature’s website and click the hearing schedules in the center of the page.

My bill, LB425 was heard before the Natural Resources committee on February 9th. LB425 increases the permit fees for nonresident hunters for numerous permits such as deer, fishing, and turkey permits. LB425 also provides Game and Parks the discretion on permitting nonresident hunters during special depredation seasons following feedback from landowners after last year’s depredation season.

In the 2022 elections, the citizens of Nebraska voted to approve a constitutional amendment to require voters to present an I.D. Since this amendment to the state constitution was approved, the Legislature must now decide how we will implement voter I.D. laws. There are five bills being considered, LB 228, 230, 535, 675 and 742. Of the five only LB535 has been heard in the Government and Military, and Veteran Affairs Committee. Many of you have contacted my office regarding voter ID legislation and I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts.

For those who are interested, you can track bills online through the Nebraska legislature has a bill tracker website. You need to sign up as a new user with your email and create a password. This will give you the ability to track up to 15 bills through the process. The BillTracker system automatically scans up-to-date legislative information on a daily basis, and automatically notifies you by email if there are any status changes with any bill you add to your bill list. This bill tracker can be found at https://www.nebraska.gov/billtracker

I know that often there can be struggles when it comes to government agencies. Mistakes get made or maybe the way our state statute is written can be unclear to those who are attempting to provide, or use the resources available to them. In these cases I want you to be aware that there is an option for you to reach out to get some additional help. The office of the Ombudsman is available to investigate citizen complaints and works as an impartial agent to resolve disputes between citizens and state agencies. If you need help you can find more information at https://nebraskalegislature.gov/ click the “Legislative divisions” on the left side of the screen and click “public council/ombudsman.”

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