Veterans Day is November 11. Veterans Day is a special day Americans set aside every year to honor those who have served our country faithfully in the armed forces. However, Veterans Day does not end on November 12. Honoring our veterans is something that should be done every day.

Unfortunately, not all Americans see it this way. In recent years there has been a surge in discrimination cases against our military personnel, so today I would like to take some time to expose what has been going on and offer some insight about how to counter it.

The last place one would ever expect to find discrimination against military personnel and veterans is in the military, yet that is what is occurring right here in Nebraska! The U.S. Air Force has been ordered to pay David Bighia of Bellevue, a 16-year Army Reserve veteran, one million dollars plus back pay and lawyer’s fees by November 29 for unlawfully denying him a job as a military historian.

Bighia’s finances have been completely destroyed. An EEOC judge ruled back in December of 2021 that the U.S. Air Force violated the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 when it reneged on a job offer and refused to make “reasonable accommodation” for Bighia’s medical condition. Although Bighia won his lawsuit, the U.S. Air Force decided to stall on paying him out even though a second judge ruled in Bighia’s favor in June of this year. As a result, Bighia’s house, which he purchased with a VA loan, is in foreclosure and he has had to file for bankruptcy.

The situation is worse with civilian employers. Between 2004 and 2020 the Justice Department filed 109 lawsuits against civilian employers for discriminating against military personnel. Walmart settled a class action suit for $14 million in 2021. During this same period hundreds of more complaints were filed with the U.S. Justice Department under the Uniform Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

Employers have been paying out millions of dollars in recent years in order to settle these cases out of court, and it has cost the federal government hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend our military personnel and veterans. According to Diedre Brou, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Justice Department’s Service Members and Veterans Initiative, 80 percent of these cases get resolved informally while other employers choose to dig in their heels and fight. Unfortunately, some employers have found that it is more lucrative to discriminate against our military personnel and veterans than to abide by the law, and that is just unamerican.

Those who get deployed to defend our country should not have to face discrimination at home. So, if you are a serviceman or servicewoman who has been discriminated against in the workforce because of your military status, know that help is available. The place to begin is at the U.S. Department of Justice. Just visit their website at: https://www.justice.gov/servicemembers/how-we-can-help.

When you see a soldier or a veteran this week remember to thank him or her for their service to our country. Without their service in the armed forces none of us would be free. They protect our way of life. There is no one more noble in America than the one who has risked both life and limb for the cause of our country. Remember this about our veterans: All gave some, but some gave all.

America’s diesel supplies are running dangerously low. As of October 14, the United States had only 25.4 days left of its diesel supply, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Then, on October 21 stockpiles of diesel reached their lowest point ever for this time of year, at least ever since the EIA began tracking this kind of data back in 1982.

Western Nebraska runs on diesel. The trains that cross our state all have diesel engines, the trucks that haul our goods on I-80 all have diesel engines, military vehicles run on diesel, and much of our farm equipment runs on diesel. Diesel is preferable to gasoline because its density means that it puts out more energy per unit than gasoline.

Prices for a gallon of diesel have already begun to skyrocket. Texas has the lowest average price per gallon in the nation at $4.76. The average price per gallon in Nebraska is $5.14, but in California it is $6.39. On average, diesel fuel is $2.00 more per gallon than it was a year ago, but if this trend continues the price will go much higher.

The diesel crisis has put the United States in a vulnerable position. Earlier this month OPEC decided to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day beginning in November despite pressure from the Biden Administration to do otherwise. OPEC’s decision prompted the Biden Administration to announce their intention to release another 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to alleviate the current crisis. But the Biden Administration had already released 180 million barrels. So, releasing another 15 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Oil Reserves will only further weaken us as a nation. This action will put our Strategic Oil Reserves at a 40-year low and put our country in a very vulnerable position against our enemies.

The future does not look good. President Biden has indicated that he has no intention of replacing the oil in our strategic reserves until the price falls to $70 per barrel. At the close of last week, Brent crude oil was selling at around $96 per barrel. Don’t expect the diesel crisis to be solved anytime soon either. Futures prices for ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) delivered in New York Harbor for the month of December are already trading at 61 percent higher than a year ago.

The American people will suffer from the diesel crisis, not the oil companies. Shell Oil, for example, announced last Thursday that its third quarter profit nearly broke the company’s record at $9.45 billion. Shell boosted its dividend to shareholders by 15 percent and announced plans to buy back another $4 billion worth of company stock over the next three months.

The diesel crisis means that Americans will continue to see higher prices at the store. The federal government’s preferred way of measuring inflation is through the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, which climbed 6.2 percent in September. Even if you strip out food and fuel, which can be volatile, prices still climbed by 5.1 percent over the past year. Because the Fed’s target for inflation is set at 2 percent, we are now running 4.2 percent higher than where we need to be. When added into the equation, the diesel crisis becomes a ticking timebomb for out-of-control inflation down the road.

This economy could soon be worse than the 1970’s. If there is a difference between the oil embargo of the 1970’s and the current diesel crisis in America, it is that we were busy stocking our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the 1970’s. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created in 1975 in order to protect the United States against another oil embargo, but now that our supplies are dwindling, OPEC is cutting oil production, and the Biden Administration is not replenishing our oil supply, our situation could soon be worse than it was in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Elections have consequences.

Abraham Lincoln once said about elections that “It is the people’s business – the election is in their hands. If they turn their backs to the fire, and get scorched in the rear, they’ll find that they have got to ‘sit’ on the ‘blister’.” In many ways that is how I feel about the election this year.

There is so much at stake in the general election on November 8 that it is hard for me to fathom why some people would choose not to cast their vote. When we choose not to vote, we are essentially allowing others to choose the path forward for our country, for our state, for our counties, and even for our local communities.

While most counties in the Panhandle have a good record for turning out the vote, there are some counties that do not fare so well. Those counties in the Panhandle which turned out the highest percentage of registered voters for the 2022 May 10 primary election were Arthur County at 60 percent, Garden County at 57 percent, and Morrill County at 54.6 percent. To the contrary, those counties with the lowest voter turnout were Cheyenne County at 26 percent, Scotts Bluff County at 22 percent, and Box Butte County at only 20 percent.

One of the reasons why this election is so important relates to the education of our children. Voters on November 8 will have the opportunity to vote for who should represent them on the State Board of Education, which has been running out of control for several years now, especially in regards to reforming the State’s standards on sex education. The situation at the State Board of Education is so bad that last week I, along with a group of other like-minded Senators from across the State, had to call for an investigation in regards to the teaching of Critical Race Theory in our schools. Voters have the opportunity to effect change for the better and to begin the process of weeding out CRT from our education system simply by voting on November 8.

Another important issue relates to ballot initiatives that will appear on your ballot this year. One of those ballot measures relates to voter identification. Once passed by voters, Initiative 432 would require voters to show a valid photo identification card whenever they vote. In order to protect the integrity of our elections, voter identification has become essential. However, this ballot measure is not without its problems. Because many voters in the Panhandle vote through the mail, State Senators would get tasked with the very difficult problem of having to work out how voter identification would work with mail-in ballots, and that is not an easy problem to solve.

Another important ballot initiative relates to raising the minimum wage. Initiative 433 would raise the State’s minimum wage incrementally each year until it finally peaks at $15.00 per hour in the year 2026. Historically, raising the minimum wage has never worked. The reason that it does not work is because it is impossible to successfully tax businesses. Businesses in a capitalistic economy always pass their taxes onto consumers in the form of higher prices, and it is no different with the minimum wage. Minimum wage laws force businesses to pass on their added expenses to consumers in the form of high prices. In other words, raising the minimum wage would raise everyone’s cost of living through inflation, and the last thing Americans need right now is to worsen the problem of inflation that is already plaguing the American economy.

For these reasons and more citizens in the Panhandle need to vote in the November 8 election. My hope and my prayer is that no county in the Nebraska Panhandle should see a voter turnout of less than fifty percent of registered voters this year for the general election. Then, on November 9, I, like many of you, will rejoice that all of the lawn signs and political commercials on television will finally come to an end.

The new ACT scores for the class of 2022 were released last week and the scores do not look good for Nebraska. Nebraska’s composite score fell to 19.4, which is below the national average of 19.8. More importantly, though, is how Nebraska’s ACT composite scores have been falling over the course of the last five years. For instance, in 2017 Nebraska’s composite score was 21.4, then in 2018 it fell to 20.1, in 2019 it was 20.0, and last year it was 20.0 again. Nebraska hasn’t seen test scores this low in a decade.

While some may choose to blame the pandemic for these falling test scores, the real culprit is that we are spending less time stressing English, Reading, Math and Science, which are all subjects measured by the ACT, and more time stressing subjects that do not contribute to student success. Last year we saw how the State Board of Education tried to reform the State’s sex education curriculum with extremist Left-wing ideology about gender identity and sexual orientation. This year the problem lies with Critical Race Theory (CRT).

The Nebraska Department of Education has been pushing CRT in our public schools. Last year the Department of Education put a link to the CRT Toolbox on their webpage for teachers to have easy access to the CRT materials. The link only recently disappeared. So, on Monday I joined Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil in calling for an investigation into the Nebraska Department of Education for promoting the teaching of CRT in Nebraska’s public schools.

Critical Race Theory distorts the facts about America’s foundation, its history and its heritage in order to promote an extremist Left-wing narrative about racism in America. While there is no question that racism has been part of America’s past, it is wrong to distort the facts about our history and to teach those distorted facts to our school children.

In order to help you see how Critical Race Theory distorts the facts about America’s past, one needs to look no further than how Howard Zinn, the founder of the Zinn Education Project, a popular Critical Race Theory program, has distorted the facts about Christopher Columbus in his book, “A People’s History of the United States.”

Howard Zinn intentionally maligned the good character of Christopher Columbus in his book in order to mislead his readers into thinking that Columbus was only interested in getting rich. On the second page of his book he wrote about Christopher Columbus’s first encounter with the Arawak Indians of the Bahamas. Zinn insinuated that Christopher Columbus was only interested in finding gold, for he wrote: “The information Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold?” Zinn clearly wanted his readers to conclude that Columbus was only in it for the money.

But, contrary to the very uninformed and biased opinion of Howard Zinn, Columbus described the primary purpose of his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean much differently. According to Columbus, his primary purpose was not the pursuit of gold; instead, it was evangelism. Zinn conveniently left out the fact that Columbus had described the primary purpose of his voyage in his own personal log as to “…bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathens.” Zinn also conveniently left out the fact that Columbus had forbidden his men to trade broken pieces of glass and pottery for gold with the Indians, and he conveniently left out the fact that Columbus died as a penniless man in South America – hardly the actions of a greedy, gold-digging explorer!

Nebraska’s students need to learn the objective facts of American history, not the very biased narrative presented by the advocates of Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory is laced with an extremist Left-wing agenda that is designed to convince all American students that the United States of America is an evil empire built on the faulty foundation of racism, and that is not an accurate portrayal of our history, our foundation, or our heritage.

If CRT is allowed to be taught in our schools, students will get a very twisted view of racism in American history. Critical Race Theory hides the fact that colonial Americans tried to pass anti-slavery laws but they were vetoed by King George III, that the Quakers of Pennsylvania founded the first abolitionist society in America as early as 1775, a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and that Benjamin Franklin spent the last three decades of his life educating black students in Philadelphia and that he petitioned Congress in 1790 to abolish slavery.

The general election will be held on November 8. Please make it a point to vote. As the election date
nears, the matter of election integrity is once again taking center stage. Election integrity has become
such an important issue to so many Nebraska voters that today I would like to address some of the core
issues which are challenging the integrity of Nebraska’s elections.

First, the Nebraska Legislature has a lot of work to do to make our elections more secure. Issues such as
voter ID implementation and verification of citizenship are lacking. So, there is no question that the
Legislature needs to pass better laws to make our elections more secure.

When I first came to the State Legislature six years ago, we tried to pass legislation to protect the
integrity of Nebraska’s elections. Sen. John Murante was the chair of the Government, Military and
Veterans Affairs Committee back in those days, and in 2018 he introduced LB 1066, a bill requiring
voters to show a photo ID at the polls. Sen. Murante argued that the time to act for election security
was now before election integrity ever became a problem in our state. Sen. Murante was right! But, LB
1066 died in committee that year.

Those who opposed the bill argued that it would have excluded some people from voting. For example,
when Lincoln Senator Adam Morfeld was asked by radio host Coby Mach on KLIN radio about who
would be excluded from voting, he had to refer to a person in Wisconsin to find a single example. He
cited a man who he said had been born at home, never had birth certificate, never drove a car, never
worked a regular job, and who continued to live completely off the grid. Consequently, State Senators
allowed the interests of an extremely small segment of the population to dictate election policy for the
rest of us that year. So much for majority rule!

Since the presidential election of 2020 voter fraud has become a major issue. Many Americans believe
that the 2020 election was stolen, and evidence continues to mount suggesting that we have a problem
on our hands. For example, last week Eugene Yu, the CEO of Konnech, was arrested on allegations of
storing critical election information gleaned from poll workers on servers in China.

One of the primary worries of election integrity in Nebraska relates to how we count our ballots. While
each county in Nebraska is responsible for counting its own ballots, the use of ballot counting machines
is mandated by state law and use of these machines has been called into question.

Nebraska currently uses ES&S ballot counting machines. Although these machines came to us without
modems installed and the Secretary of State has been careful to have these machines inspected before
each election, something as small as a microchip secretly implanted in the machine’s motherboard is
all that it takes to change the outcome of an election. For this reason, many Nebraskans are now calling
for the State to return to the days of counting paper ballots by hand.

As you can see, there are many issues concerning election integrity that the State Legislature still needs
to address. Election integrity should not be a partisan issue. As a Nebraska State Senator, I understand
that Nebraskans need to have faith in our elections, that the people need to know that their votes will
be counted accurately, and that appropriate legislative actions still need to be taken to eliminate
election fraud. Please know that I will continue to work with the State Legislature to make Nebraska’s
elections fair, honest and secure.

By now many Nebraskans all across the State have received a pink postcard in the mail informing them about an increase in their property taxes and a public hearing about the tax increase. These pink postcards are the product of LB 644, the Property Tax Request Act, better known as the Truth in Taxation Act. The bill was intended to give greater transparency in government and to provide taxpayers with a heads-up whenever government entities want to raise taxes. While this bill was certainly well intentioned, next year the Legislature will need to fix several problems with the bill. So, today I would like to address those concerns.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the Truth in Taxation Act is that it informs taxpayers too late about their tax increase. LB 644 requires that public hearings take place between September 17 and September 29 of each calendar year. This is too late. The notice should be received while the budget workshops are still in progress, in August or early September. Many Nebraskans who attended the public hearings found out at these hearings that the government entity responsible for their tax increase had already passed its final budget for the year. As a result, there was nothing they or anyone else could do to stop the tax increase. Had the taxpayers received the pink postcards and a public hearing be held before the passing of the final budget, they may have had a say in the matter.

Another problem with the Truth in Taxation Act relates to the number of postcards that were mailed out. LB 644 requires that a postcard be mailed out for every parcel of land in the county. In some cases, a single landowner received more than 100 pink postcards in the mail. The costs associated with mailing so many postcards means that government entities will likely have to raise property taxes in order to cover the postage and this defeats the purpose of the postcards. Therefore, the Legislature needs to change this so that a landowner receives only one notice for all of the parcels of land he or she owns in a particular county.

Another problem with the Truth in Taxation Act is that government entities do not have to inform taxpayers about a tax increase unless the tax increase amounts to more than the allowable growth percentage. Calculating the allowable growth percentage is much too confusing and cumbersome for the average citizen to figure out. The allowable growth percentage is calculated by adding two percent to the political subdivision’s real growth percentage. So, in the City of Lincoln the school board increased everyone’s property taxes but did so slightly below their allowable growth percentage so as not to have to send a representative to the public hearing. Wouldn’t you simply like to know anytime a government entity increases your tax burden?

One final problem with the Truth in Taxation Act relates to a loophole in the law. There is nothing in LB 644 which punishes a county, a school district, or a community college for failing to comply with the law. Theoretically, a political subdivision could snub the law and forget about mailing out the pink postcards or a notice without facing any statutory repercussions for doing so. So, it remains to be seen what would happen to a political subdivision if they never bothered to mail out the pink postcards or a notice.

Transparency in taxation is a good thing. Those working for political subdivisions need to look the taxpayers in the eye before ever raising their tax burden, but taxpayers also need to have a say in the matter. Raising property taxes against the will of the people is simply immoral and wrong, and denying them a voice before passing of a final budget is even worse! I appreciate everyone who attended these hearings and who shared their concerns. The Legislature will need to fix these problems next year, or better yet, repeal property taxes altogether and adopt the EPIC Consumption Tax.

All of the signs are indicating that the U.S. economy is entering into a long-term recession. Last Wednesday the Federal Reserve raised the key interest rate by three quarters of a point and raised the short-term interest rate from 3 percent to 3.25 percent, the highest level since 2008. Add to this the Biden Administration’s plan for student loan forgiveness plus $13.7 billion in assistance to Ukraine, $22.4 billion to fight COVID-19, $4.5 billion for a Monkeypox vaccine, and $6.5 billion for disaster relief, and you have a recipe for a long-term recession.

All of this bad news means that it has now become much more difficult for Americans to get mortgages, car loans, and small business loans. In the days ahead it will be more difficult to make ends meet. So, how will all of this effect Nebraskans?

While a long-term economic recession is never good for our State, Nebraskans are slightly better positioned to weather the economic storm than those in other states, and today I would like to tell you why that is the case.

Nebraska still has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.4 percent. Nebraska’s low unemployment rate will help Nebraskans weather the economic storm. During times of recession employers often have to lay off some of their employees. When employees get laid off, they spend less money, which only worsens the economy. Because of our low unemployment rate, people from other states may look at moving to Nebraska in order to find work.

Nebraska still has some of the most affordable housing in the country. In August the national median home price jumped 7.7 percent to $389,500 per home. In Nebraska the median home price jumped 8.4 percent in August but remains well below the national average at $273,600 per home. Because we have the seventh lowest median home price in the nation, Nebraska remains one of the most affordable places to live in the United States.

Nebraska still has mortgage rates that are below the national average. Last week the average rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage jumped from 5.21 percent to 5.44 percent. At this time last year the average rate was only 2.15 percent! However, according to Nerdwallet, Nebraskans with good credit can get a 15-year fixed rate mortgage for 5.43 percent, which is just below the national average.

While all of this may sound like really good news, the fact of the matter is that Nebraska continues to shoot itself in the foot. Let me explain. Nebraskans continue to suffer under an unbearable tax burden. By now most residents have received a pink post card in the mail indicating that their property taxes will go up…again. None of the good news I have shared above matters when a property owner cannot pay his or her property tax bill and the State steps in to seize the property. Nebraskans desperately need property tax relief, but that is not all that has gone wrong.

LB 644 is the bill that generated those pink postcards. The purpose behind LB 644 was to create better transparency in government. Now government entities have to notify you before they raise your property taxes. However, that bill was also poorly written such that counties now have to send a separate pink postcard for every parcel of land in the county. I know one property owner who received 105 pink postcards in the mail! Instead of mailing multiple postcards to one person, I believe this could be done on one postcard. Nevertheless, because the law now requires a separate postcard to be mailed for each parcel of land, county budgets will necessarily go up in order to cover the cost and so will your property taxes!

For the past six years I have been the chair of a special committee of the Nebraska State Legislature known as the Building Maintenance Committee. The Building Maintenance Committee is an oversight committee for the 309 Task Force for Building Renewal. The 309 Task Force for Building Renewal is a subdivision of the State Building Division. They use state monies, especially revenues generated from the cigarette tax, to take on special projects that other state agencies need help with.

By law the Building Maintenance Committee is required to meet at least four times throughout the year. This year we held all four of our meetings on-site where the work was being done, and those meetings spanned the entire state of Nebraska. So, today I would like to tell you about some of the improvements that we have made to our state facilities.

On May 13 we held our first meeting at the Platte River State Park near Louisville, NE. Among Nebraska’s State Parks the Platte River State Park is Nebraska’s most hidden gem. The Park offers all kinds of camping opportunities ranging from wigwams to glamping. The Park also offers archery, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, Kayaking and canoeing, a water fall, a water spray park, and a lot more. The Park also has its own restaurant, known as the Walter Scott Jr. Lodge, which had not been in compliance with the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA). So, we added an ADA compliant restroom and built a ramp for wheelchair access up to the restaurant. We also repaired the roof and some windows at the Mallet Lodge, which is a meeting facility for large groups.

Our second meeting of the year was held on July 21 at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, NE. Because the Department of Corrections stands in need of more bed space, major renovations are taking place at this facility to accommodate more inmates. Our work there mostly involved window replacements in a connecting hallway that will soon link to a new building. Because the main prison in Lincoln is quickly becoming obsolete, the renovations taking place at the Reception and Treatment Center, which is located on the outskirts of Lincoln, will help to ensure that our inmates will be properly cared for many years into future years.

Our third meeting took place on September 7 at the Military Readiness Center in Sidney, Nebraska. The Military Readiness Center in Sidney is important because it supplies the United States Army with combat ready troops from Nebraska’s Army National Guard. The main facility needs a lot of repairs. The building needs a new boiler, window replacements and a new roof. So, we began the process of making each of these repairs.

Our fourth and final meeting of the year took place on September 14 at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The Fine Arts Building and the Administration Building both have entryways with energy inefficient single-paned glass windows and glass doors that are too heavy for their pivots. Some of the concrete was crumbling from the weight of the doors. So, we will replace the single-paned glass windows with double-paned glass windows and we will replace the pivot doors with hinged doors in order to take the weight off of the pivots.

Finally, after serving as the chair of the Building Maintenance Committee for the past six years, the Senators on the committee and I have discussed the necessity for having such a committee. Because the 309 Task Force for Building Renewal is part of the State Building Division, having a Legislative oversight committee oftentimes seems redundant. There is no reason why the State Building Division should not be given direct oversight over the 309 Task Force for Building Renewal. The Legislature’s Building Maintenance Committee should be restructured to avoid having on-site meetings. Instead of having four on-site meetings every year, Legislative oversight may be achieved simply by reviewing the plans of the 309 Task Force for Building Renewal on an annual basis during the winter months before construction projects begin in the springtime.

A new political action group has been formed in our state known as Nebraska First. As you may have
guessed, the name closely resembles former president Donald Trump’s political slogan, Make America
Great Again (MAGA), except that this one is specific to the State of Nebraska. The founder of Nebraska
First is former gubernatorial candidate, Charles W. Herbster.

Nebraska First has asked all State Senators as well as candidates for the State Legislature to sign a
pledge for greater transparency in the State Legislature. The pledge specifically calls upon State
Senators to eliminate voting by secret ballot for leadership positions, especially committee chairs.
Nebraska First cited Article III, Section 11 of the Nebraska State Constitution as their grounds for
opposing secret ballots. Today I am happy to report that I eagerly and readily signed that pledge and
today I would like to tell you why I signed that pledge.

Before I disclose my reasons for signing the pledge, let me first tell you about another political action
group that I heard from on the very same issue. Another political action group known as Nonpartisan
Nebraska also contacted me. They asked me not to sign the pledge and to continue supporting the
practice of using secret ballots for committee chairs. According to Nonpartisan Nebraska, Article III,
Section 11 of the State Constitution does not forbid secret ballot voting, especially where it says, “The
Legislature shall keep a journal of its proceedings and publish them, except parts which may require
secrecy, and the yeas and nays of the members on any question shall at the desire of any one of them
be entered on the journal.” I agree with them that this particular statement does not forbid the use of
secret ballots, but that is not the end of the story.

Nonpartisan Nebraska conveniently left out of their letter the most important sentence in Article III,
Section 11 of the Nebraska State Constitution. That most important sentence says, “All votes shall be
viva voce.” Viva voce is a Latin expression which means “by voice”. In other words, all votes must be
spoken or at least be made public in some way. The only reason for speaking a vote is for the vote to be
made public, and that is why I signed the pledge.

The practice of voting for committee chairs by way of secret ballot is unconstitutional in my humble
opinion, and we have been doing it for years. While the practice of voting by way of secret ballot may
date back to the days when George Norris first created the Unicameral Legislature, ninety or even a
hundred years of a bad practice does not justify it. By eliminating secret ballot voting, I believe the
Unicameral Legislature will come into better alignment with the Nebraska State Constitution.

Another reason I have for signing that pledge relates to the right of the people to know how their
elected officials vote on important matters. Voters have a right to know how their State Senators vote
on leadership positions in the State Legislature. So long as secret ballots remain in use, the public will
never know how their State Senators vote on these important leadership positions. We need more
transparency in the Unicameral Legislature, not less.

A third reason why I am signing this pledge is to help eliminate back room dealing. Whenever voting is
done in secret, votes get traded in back rooms and in the dark hallways of the Capitol Building. Some
State Senators are willing to trade their vote on a committee chair just to get a bill advanced out of
committee, and that’s not right. The time has come for the Legislature to end the corrupt practice of
back room vote trading.

So, the pledge for transparency in the State Legislature that I signed on September 6, 2022 reads as
follows: “I, Steve Erdman, pledge to the voters of District 47 that as a member of the Nebraska
Legislature, I will make all my votes for leadership positions public, and I will vote to make all leadership
votes a matter of public record by rule.”

Two weeks ago, I addressed the reset at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) due to their failure to adequately guide the American public through the COVID-19 outbreak, and last week I addressed how the military has failed to adjust their policies to the facts about the COVID-19 vaccinations and natural immunity. So, today I would like to focus my attention on the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which approved a new booster shot last week. Because of this latest development, I believe it is time to inform the public about the latest science regarding that booster shot as well as other treatments for the coronavirus.

As I said, last week the FDA approved a new booster shot for the new strains of the coronavirus. The new booster is a “bivalent” booster shot meaning that it has been specially formulated to target the original coronavirus as well as the Omicron variant and the latest subvariant of the coronavirus known as BA.5. The booster shots are being manufactured by both Pfizer and Moderna and contain the same problematic mRNA technology used in the original vaccines and boosters that caused 44 percent of pregnant women to lose their babies.

These new bivalent booster shots should be considered experimental. Although Pfizer and Moderna have administered the boosters to some human beings, the FDA is mostly relying upon experimental doses given to mice. When the new boosters were introduced last week Dr. Robert M. Califf, the FDA Commissioner, admitted publicly that regulators do not know when they will see data on how well the new boosters are working. Until we have this data, which could take years, these new bivalent boosters should be considered experimental.

The FDA is chasing its own tail, but you don’t have to take this from me. Last week Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic compared the FDA’s booster shot strategy to a dog chasing its own tail because the virus tends to mutate faster than the pharmaceutical companies can keep up with new boosters. Because of the virus’s tendency to rapidly mutate, Dr. Poland told the New York Times that, besides the elderly and those with immune deficiencies, the new bivalent booster shots likely won’t make a substantial impact with the rest of the population.

So, while the FDA continues to chase its own tail by creating more and more boosters, which only last for a season, other countries around the world are discovering the benefits of using therapeutic drugs to treat the symptoms of the disease. For example, the latest study on the use of ivermectin to treat the symptoms of the coronavirus was published on August 31 by a team of scientists in Brazil. That study can be found online at www.cureus.com.

What the Brazilian study found was absolutely amazing! The study focused on 223,128 subjects from the City of Itajai. 159,560 adults were not infected by the coronavirus until July 7, 2020, and among them 28.7 percent never used ivermectin, while the other 71.3 percent did. The study found that among the regular users of ivermectin, there was a 100 percent reduction in the hospitalization rate! Moreover, the study also found that the mortality rate was 92 percent lower among regular users of ivermectin than among non-users of the drug!

So, there you have it. The FDA continues to discourage the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 on its website. Meanwhile, there are about 40,000 people hospitalized in the United States for the coronavirus, and we continue to lose about 500 Americans per day to the disease. Common sense would dictate that the FDA reconsider its strategy and take a hard look at therapeutic drugs, such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and budesonide inhalers.

We now have an abundance of sound scientific evidence that these therapeutic drugs keep large percentages of infected people out of the hospital and prevent them from dying from the disease. For the FDA to continue to deny the American people access to these therapeutic drugs is criminal, and they should be held accountable for every death that occurs without access to these drugs. Whether or not to administer these therapeutic drugs is a decision which should be made between a patient and his or her physician without any more interference from the FDA.