This week marked day 12 of the 108th Legislature, first session. My colleagues elected me to be the chair of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee on the first day of session.

We are only allowed to introduce bills the first 10 days of session. There were a total of 812 bills introduced. I introduced 12 bills this year. Over the next couple of weeks, I will highlight and share about my bills.

LB137 is called the drug induced homicide bill. Unfortunately, we have been seeing more deaths due to fentanyl laced drugs and I have been meeting with families who have unfortunately lost children because their children did not know that they were taking a drug laced with fentanyl. My bill will make it a class IB felony if a person knowingly distributes a drug that causes serious bodily injury or causes death.

LB165 would allow 529 plans to be used to pay for K-12 tuition costs in Nebraska. The Federal Government allowed 529 plans to be used for K-12 tuition costs, but it needed to be passed by each individual state. Nebraska has added every other option that the Federal Government has allowed 529 accounts to be used for except K-12 tuition. I think that we should allow this so that there is no more confusion on what is allowed and what isn’t allowed with our plans.

As always, feel free to contact my office. My office phone number is 402-471-2731 and my email is sgeist@leg.ne.gov.