We are getting towards the end of hearings on bills introduced in the 2022 session, with the last day of hearings being March 3rd, after which the Legislature will turn to all-day debate, including late nights. This also means that winter is almost over and we are headed towards spring! I would like to highlight two of my bills that have had hearings recently with powerful testimony.

The first is LB756, which had its hearing on February 17th in the Health and Human Services Committee. The bill eliminates reference to “clandestine drug lab” and replaces it with the language “contaminated property” and changes meth reporting procedures and enforcement to include public health authorities. The bill came from our office working with Peggy Galloway, Director of Jefferson County Diversion Services, and Mark Shroenrock, Chairman of the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, who both testified along with Jefferson County Attorney Joe Casson about the dangers of meth, particularly the effects on innocent children living in contaminated residences. We need to make sure these contaminated properties are properly cleaned before they are being rented or sold again.

The number one drug threat over the last 20 years in rural and urban communities in Nebraska is methamphetamine, and it has gotten more accessible and cheaper over that time. The amount of meth seized in Nebraska has surged almost 300% in the last five years with law enforcement agencies confiscating 768 pounds in 2021, including meth spiked with fentanyl which renders it more potent and deadly. According to Acting U.S. Attorney Jan Sharp, meth is now found in Nebraska’s biggest cities, smallest towns and within the state’s tribal reservations, so I am going to do what I can to address this. 

The other bill is LB 1009, which would adopt the Domestic Abuse Death Review Act, and had its hearing last Friday. LB 1009 creates a Domestic Abuse Review Team to be appointed by the Attorney General, whose office we have been working with on the bill and who testified in support at the hearing. We also heard heart-wrenching testimonies from the families of domestic abuse victims and the need to do everything we can to prevent these kinds of deaths from happening to anyone else. The bill seeks to prevent future domestic abuse deaths by analyzing the incidence, causes, and contributing factors of domestic abuse deaths in this state and developing recommendations through an annual report. Nebraska is one of only nine states that does not have such a death review team.