Wednesday was the last day of the 2nd session of the 107th Legislature. Normally, we would have time to debate every Senator, Committee and Speaker priority bill. This 60-day session was different. We were not able to debate every priority bill due to the fact that we had so many filibusters. We spent over 45 hours debating just the three budget bills.

We were still able to accomplish many great things this session. We were able to help many communities and Nebraskans in need with the ARPA funding we received from the Federal Government, passed the largest tax relief bill since I have been in office and many other bills that will help Nebraskans.

I will miss my colleagues that are term-limited or have chosen not to run for re-election, but I am looking forward to working with many new senators next year.

This interim, I will be working on two major items for the next session. I will be working on a corrections reform plan and I will be learning more about the mental health issues in the state and trying to find a way to assist with this issue.

This past week we had the last late night debates for this session. We had many late nights and we were able to debate a majority of the priority bills this session. Unfortunately, we were not able to debate all of the priority bills. We have one more day left in this session.

Two of my bills were amended into one of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee bill LB750. My bills, LB714 that creates the Lancaster County Customer Service Center for the DMV and LB1259 which assists the DMV with the increase in the cost of materials to make license plates were amended into LB750 and it passed the last round of debate on April 12th.

My bill, LB1214 which will allow telecommunications companies to come to the table and submit applications for the Broadband Bridge Act was amended into the other Transportation and Telecommunications committee priority bill. This bill was passed on the last round of debate on April 13th.

My bill, LB1215 which provides counseling and grants to very small start-up businesses was amended into Senator McKinney’s bill and was passed on the last round of debate on April 12th.

My bill, LB1184 which I introduced at the request of the Attorney General to clarify the role of the agency council for the State Patrol and when an outside counsel can be hired to represent a state patrol officer or employee when the employee is a subject of a grand jury or prosecutorial inquiry.

My bill, LB1150 which would provide the Legislative Audit Office with additional information that is necessary for them to conduct performance audits like the ImagiNE act to insure that business incentive programs are working was debated on the last round of debate this week too. I was able to add my other bill, LB937 which will appropriate funds to purchase a better version of economic modeling software for the Legislature. This will allow the legislature the ability to estimate revenue generation caused by new investment and employment. LB1150 was passed on the final round of debate on April 13th.

So, in total seven of the nine bills that I introduced this session were passed.

We have had many late nights these past couple of weeks. Multiple late nights often happen as we near the end of session. Friday was the last day for bills to be heard on general file or the first round of debate.

Over the past couple of weeks, the legislature has discussed LB920. LB920 was introduced by Senator Lathrop. It would change many items within the criminal justice statutes. Senator Lathrop claimed that LB920 was the consensus items from the Crime and Justice Institute working group report. I was a member of this working group last year and I was disappointed when I saw LB920. The working group assumed the bill would only include the 18 consensus items from our report. Unfortunately, Senator Lathrop also included the non-consensus items along with consensus items and a couple ideas that were not even recommended by CJI.

The non-consensus items and additional ideas Senator Lathrop included would have greatly compromised public safety. I introduced an amendment that only included consensus items and was willing to negotiate with Senator Lathrop from the time the amendment was introduced until it was debated on the floor. Two weeks ago, Senator Lathrop was willing to begin negotiations on the bill. I thought we were negotiating in good faith. After over 10 hours of negotiating, I offered Senator Lathrop a very good compromise. He would be receiving 85 percent of what he wanted in the bill. He decided that if he could not get the full one hundred percent of what he wanted, he would rather have the bill fail and not advance forward. As we were about to go to a cloture vote which would require 33 votes to end debate on the bill, Senator Lathrop pleaded with the other members of the legislature to advance the bill without adding my amendment and asking them to allow us to negotiate. During debate on LB920, Senator Lathrop had said multiple times that no one was willing to negotiate with him, which was not true. He only received 26 of the 33 votes needed to end the debate on the bill. Even though we were not able to pass the consensus items that would do many great things like providing mental health care for inmates, I have agreed to work during the interim with several other Senators on a corrections package for next session.

Late night debate started this past week. We spent two days debating the budget bills and we still have one more budget bill left to debate.

My bill, LB1259, which would change provisions relating to the issuance of new license plates and license plate fees was amended into the Transportation and Telecommunications priority bill. Just like everything else, the inputs for making license plates have increased dramatically and the Legislature needs to address this issue.

My bill, LB714, will reallocate funds that the DMV receives from five-year documents such as driver’s licenses and state identification cards, was also amended into the Transportation and Telecommunications priority bill. The reallocated funds will go to create a streamlined service center in Lancaster County. The current location has long wait times and it can be very frustrating for citizens to do business at that location. Citizens will be able to take their photo and pay for their 5-year documents at the same time. So they will no longer have go to different counters and stand in multiple lines once this is completed

My bill, LB1184, I introduced at the request of the Attorney General was passed on the first round of debate. LB1184 clarifies that a state trooper or employee of the state patrol could request a private attorney if they are called before a grand jury. It also makes clear the duties of the State Patrol legal counsel.

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

This week was the last week of committee hearings.

On Thursday, my bill LB1215, which creates the Small Business Assistance Act, was amended onto Senator McKinney’s priority bill, LB450. I worked with a constituent on this bill. She brought to my attention there are many hurdles that middle class families face when starting a small business. There are many resources for a small business that produces high paying jobs, but for the person that would like to start an “everyday business” it is hard to find good business resources. My bill will provide grants for small businesses, if the owner makes less than $55,000 a year, has no other interest in a business and has less than $200,000 in assets excluding their home. The state will also contract with a business and provide professional business counseling services to these businesses. The counseling includes human resources information, assistance writing a business plan, financial planning and so many more resources that many new business owners don’t realize are a necessity until it is too late. I am excited to help fill a much needed gap in small business start ups and helping them be successful!

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

We have reached the half-way point of session and we have just one week left of committee hearings. We will start late night debates the week of March 7th.

My bill, LB1086 creates the Chemical Abortion Safety Act. It was heard in the Judiciary Committee on Thursday evening. I introduced this bill because chemical abortions make up over 70% of all abortions in Nebraska, and currently there is no prescribed standard of care. My bill requires a physician to see the woman to establish how far along she is, check if she has a dangerous ectopic pregnancy, and check to make sure that she is not Rh negative. If she is, RhoGAM is given to prevent future miscarriages or infertility. This bill also limits the use of chemical agents to the first 7 weeks of pregnancy, as risks of complications increase substantially each week thereafter. Lastly, it sets up a much-needed reporting requirement. Currently, in Nebraska there is little to no reporting of chemical abortions, or any subsequent complications. There is also no accountability or follow up with women who have complications. LB 1086 sets up this standard of care and is a common sense solution that protects women who opt for chemical abortions.

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

We are almost halfway through the 60 day session. We only have two weeks of committee hearing left before we start late night debates.

On Monday, my bill LB1215, which creates the Small Business Assistance Act, had a hearing in the Banking Commerce and Insurance Committee. I worked with a constituent on this bill. She brought to my attention that there are many hurdles that middle class families face if they want to start a small business. There are many resources for small businesses that produce high paying jobs, but for the person that would like to start an everyday business it is hard for them to find someone to help answer their questions. My bill will provide grants for small businesses if the owner makes less than $55,000 a year, has no other interest in a business and has less than $200,000 in assets excluding their home. The state will also contract with a business and provide professional business counseling services to these businesses. The counseling includes human resources information, assistance writing a business plan, financial planning and so many more resources that most people do not realize are a necessity until it is too late. The Banking Commerce and Insurance Committee voted my bill out of committee 8-0. Senator McKinney has allowed me to amend this bill onto his priority bill, LB450, which is on select file.

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

It was a busy week. We had morning debate, then hearings in the afternoon. The Judiciary Committee had a couple of hearings that went later into the night. I introduced two of my bills in committee hearings this week.

My bill, LB1214, which makes changes to the Broadband Bridge Act was heard in the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee on Tuesday. This bill will bring all the businesses that offer broadband in the state to the table to help provide broadband to areas that are not currently served.

I introduced LB1184 at the request of the Attorney General. The hearing for this bill was on Thursday in the Judiciary Committee. LB1184 clarifies that a state trooper or employee could request a private attorney if they are called before a grand jury. It also clarifies the duties of the State Patrol legal counsel.

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

We are one third of the way through this session. I am on the Judiciary and the Transportation and Telecommunications committees. We have had many late nights in the Judiciary committee so far this session.

The committee hearing for my bill, LB937, which will appropriate funds to the Legislative Council for economic modeling software was this past Tuesday in the Revenue Committee. This software would allow us to have more accurate fiscal notes. Our fiscal notes allow senators to determine if a bill will be helpful to the state or if the bill will end up costing the state more money than we would end up collecting.

On Tuesday the committee hearing for my bill, LB1259, would change provisions relating to the issuance of new license plates and license plate fees was in the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. Just like everything else, the inputs for making license plates have increased dramatically and the Legislature needs to discuss this. My bill would allow for this discussion, and it will also allow us to investigate how long our license plates last.

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

We were in session for five days this week. This is the only week that we will not have a recess day during this session.

On Monday, Senators Albrecht, Slama and I had a press conference to discuss each of our prolife bills. I introduced LB1086 to create a safety protocol for chemical abortions. My bill would make it so that a physician would have to examine a woman before she was given chemical abortion pills. The physician could only prescribe the drugs to a woman for up to 7 weeks in her pregnancy. The farther along a woman is in her pregnancy, the odds of her having a complication and needing medical intervention drastically increase.

My bill, LB1010 was heard in the Judiciary committee on Friday afternoon. I introduced LB1010 as a result of a roundtable I held this Fall with multiple Juvenile Justice stakeholders. During this discussion, I learned that there has been a reinterpretation of the law and law enforcement is no longer able to find out if a juvenile on an ankle monitor was at a crime scene without approval from a judge. My bill allows this information to be available again to law enforcement without waiting for a warrant from a judge. This ensures their ability to respond more quickly in a potentially dangerous situation.

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