As we begin the month of February, the pace of the Legislature will start to pick up. We are now spending the mornings debating bills moved to the floor from the 14 standing committees that have been meeting in the afternoons for bill hearings. Any bills voted out of committee and advanced to the floor are reviewed by the Speaker to be scheduled for floor debate. Most of the committees have scheduled hearings on bills that are primarily “clean-up” bills or bills that are non-controversial. Most of these bills had no negative testifiers and were voted out of committee unanimously. That will change in the coming weeks when more controversial bills are advanced to the floor.

I was fortunate to have two bills moved out of committee and advanced to Select File last week. The first bill, LB38, was brought to me by a constituent in Maxwell. The bill deals with updating statutes for professional geologists. The second bill was LB108, which cleans up the language of a bill I passed last year regarding firefighter pension plans. Both bills were passed unanimously out of committee, and both garnered over 40 votes on the floor. Two of my other bills have been advanced out of committee to General File. I hope to see those bills scheduled soon. They include LB250, which makes changes to residency rules for bank directors, and LB251 which is a bill that updates statutes for the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance. Four down, eleven to go.

I have three bills that will have their public hearings this coming week:

On February 3, I will present LB525, the Agricultural Data Privacy Act. As the bill implies, it is intended to allow farmers and ranchers to protect the privacy of data collected from their farms and ranches. As precision agriculture continues to advance, more and more data will be collected. We need to set clear guidelines as to who owns the data, who can view the data, and who can sell the data. I am bringing this bill on behalf of the Governor, and appreciate his commitment to Nebraska’s largest industry. I think there is some work to be done on the language to ensure no unintended consequences, but LB525 is an important start to the conversation. I look forward to working with the Governor and our ag community to make the bill perfect.

On Tuesday, February 4, I will present the LB527, which will likely become my priority bill. It is the Medicaid Access and Quality Act. This bill, if passed and approved by CMS, would provide additional federal funding for Nebraska doctors and other individual providers who see Medicaid patients. It will also generate over $100 million to help reimburse the state for the lost Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) revenue. These federal funds are paid to states as reimbursement for Medicaid mandates based on need. Since Nebraska’s economy is doing better than other states, our cut in funding was more than any other state, including California (in real dollars). No pressure, but the Governor is counting on this bill to pass this session.

On Wednesday, February 5, I will present LB529, which I brought on behalf of the Nebraska State Investment Council. The bill seeks to revise statutes limiting the term of state contracts for the Investment Council due to the nature of their business activities.

So far, the legislature is moving along on schedule. I hope that continues.

It is a privilege to represent you in the Nebraska Legislature, and I look forward to hearing from you regarding issues that are important to you. I can be reached at 402-471-2729 or by emailing me at mjacobson@leg.ne.gov.