Monday marks Day 18 of the 60-day legislative session. We are still having floor debate every morning and then moving to hearings beginning every afternoon. Hearings will end on February 27 (Day 35), and we will then proceed to all-day floor debate for the remainder of the session. As a reminder, every bill introduced gets a hearing, but the committee of jurisdiction must vote to send the bill to the floor after the hearing before the Speaker can schedule it for floor debate. If the committee chair chooses not to hold a vote on a bill heard in committee, the bill does not move.

With over 550 bills and constitutional amendments introduced this year, it will soon take a “priority” designation to have a bill heard on the floor. If your bill was fortunate enough to get heard in committee and voted out early, it may have been scheduled for floor debate by the Speaker if the bill was voted out of committee unanimously and would likely not be controversial on the floor. This will continue if there are no priority bills pending scheduling.

Committee and individual Senator priority designations must be made by February 19. Those bills will get priority for scheduling before other non-priority bills. I am fortunate to have four bills heard on the floor so far without any priority designation. All four bills had no opposition, so I expect them to keep moving quickly through the process.

On Monday, I will present LB835 to the Banking, Commerce, and Insurance Committee. The bill makes changes to the fees and certain notices by the Secretary of State. I worked with Secretary of State Bob Evenen on this bill to align fees for business-related services his agency provides with costs, reducing reliance on tax dollars. On Tuesday, I will present LB1130 to the Urban Affairs Committee, a bill I was asked to introduce that would allow neighborhoods within a municipality to create a Community Improvement District. I think that this bill can add another tool in the toolbox for communities for economic development, but I would likely need the Urban Affairs Committee to include the bill in their committee priority bill to move it this year.

A replacement amendment for my LB525, the ag data privacy bill, will be heard before the Banking, Commerce, and Insurance Committee on February 17. I will likely name this bill as my personal priority bill if there is no other path forward this year. I expect the amendment to have strong support.

This past week, we debated Senator Hardin’s LB538, which requires policies and training related to discrimination and antisemitism. Although I strongly support the cause, the bill creates a mandate for K-12 public schools, as well as post-secondary institutions. It also requires the Coordination Commission on Postsecondary Education to employ an executive director and other employees to designate a Title VI Coordinator.

As much as I agree with the intent and need, I generally don’t support unfunded mandates, especially during this time. The bill advanced with 42 votes, but I will continue to evaluate my position between now and Select File. There are many well-intentioned bills heard before the Legislature, but when local funding is required, I tend not to support them because we are telling political subdivisions, on the one hand, to reduce spending to provide property tax relief, yet passing bills that require them to spend more. We cannot have it both ways.

I also want you to know that I am opposed to diverting dollars away from Nebraska’s Veterans Aid Trust Fund. This proposal is part of the budget bills, and I hope it will be fixed prior to the budget coming to the floor. I am working with the Appropriations Committee members to stop this transfer. Once the bill reaches the floor, it will be harder to remove the sweep from the bill.

I also want to thank Lincoln County’s Veterans Service Officer, Tom Gann, for stopping by my office with his wife to visit last week. I have great respect for Tom and hope that everyone knows how fortunate Lincoln County is to have him in this position.

It is a pleasure serving as your State Senator. I enjoy the challenge and will continue to do my best to serve the interests of District 42. Please continue to reach out to me about issues important to you at 402-471-2729 or by emailing me at mjacobson@leg.ne.gov.