Greetings from Lincoln! This past week we spent many hours debating LB 239, the “Voter ID” bill introduced by Senator Charlie Janssen of Fremont and prioritized by Senator Ken Schilz of Ogallala. This has been one of the most controversial issues of this Session. Each of us here has received many e-mails from people all around the state expressing their opinions. I would like to thank each of you who has called, e-mailed, written, and/or talked to me in person about this bill.

The people of the State who have contacted me are fairly evenly divided on whether or not the Legislature should pass this bill and I have taken the time to hear and weigh the facts and opinions on this issue before making my decision. This issue has crossed party lines, with people from each party being on both sides. Emotions have run high, I have been called names over the telephone, but I have also had very reasonable discussions with people, and I am proud of the way this bill was handled on the floor – very respectfully.

I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts in making my decision. I don’t see this issue as clear-cut as some do. First of all, we do not have a problem with voter fraud in Nebraska. Our Secretary of State monitors, very closely, any potential instances and has stated to us that it simply isn’t a problem here. Now, could it become one in the future? Possibly. So, do we need to take steps to prevent it? Yes, maybe we do. Is LB 239 the right solution to a potential future problem? No, I don’t believe it is.

First of all, it may solve one possible method of cheating in an election – voter impersonation, where someone actually shows up to a polling place and pretends to be someone else. This is not only the rarest form of voter fraud anywhere in the country, it is also highly unlikely to ever happen in most of Nebraska as most of our communities are small enough that the voter will be recognized by someone there, and even if they were not recognized as an imposter, they would have to get there before the registered voter, and be sure that the actual voter was not voting by mail. I also don’t believe that if someone is intent on trying to rig an election this is the method they would choose. It is more likely they would attempt to register under a false identity, and this bill would not solve that problem as it is fairly easy to obtain a fake ID.

Second, I believe that LB 239 creates an illegal “poll tax” by requiring that someone purchase an ID in order to vote. We cannot, under the U.S. Constitution, require anyone to have to pay a fee in order to be able to vote. A driver’s license or state identification card, valid for five years, costs $26.50. And this may not just be a one-time fee, as it has to be replaced every time a person moves. For some elderly people on fixed incomes, low-income Nebraskans, and college students this seemingly small amount could actually be prohibitive to them being able to exercise their right to vote. And if even one Nebraskan is prevented from voting by an action that the Nebraska Legislature took, that is one too many.

According to the Nebraska DMV, up to 130,000 of Nebraskans do not have valid ID for various reasons including change of address. LB 239 would affect 80,763 elderly and home bound Nebraskans who are unable to make it to the DMV to get proper identification to vote. Rural Nebraska especially is adversely affected by voter ID laws in that the local DMV office is further away and a vast majority are not open the entire week, an estimated 485,569 Nebraskans do not have access to DMV office which is open five days a week.

For these reasons, I could not support LB 239. This does not mean that I am not in favor of enacting a law which would address voter fraud issues. It is my hope that many Senators, myself included, will come together to address this over the interim and introduce a comprehensive voter fraud prevention bill that will truly protect the rights of all legal voters in Nebraska.

Greetings from Lincoln! We are fifty days into this sixty day legislative session, and we have a lot left to do. We spent the majority of Monday and Tuesday of this past week still debating the budget, and much of that time was spent debating the Governor’s proposed tax cut plan. It was a good debate, with many thoughtful points being brought up. There isn’t a senator here who wouldn’t like to grant tax cuts to hard-working Nebraskans, however, right now we are facing likely budget shortfalls in the next few years. After careful consideration, compromise, and a re-working of our 2012 budget, we did advance a pared-down version of LB 970. I admit I am still a little leery of this course of action this year. I hope that when we prepare the next budget that we are not forced to cut services.

Wednesday morning we advanced LB 1145, introduced by Senator Amanda McGill of Lincoln, a bill dealing with the subject of human trafficking. It is difficult to know exactly how big this problem is in Nebraska because right now we are not tracking the numbers of people involved in human trafficking in our state. However, we do know it is a serious problem worldwide and the U.S. is not immune. One group, the Polaris Project (www.polarisproject.org) does keep track of calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline. During the past three years, there were 70 calls from Nebraska to this hotline. One UNL professor estimates that there could be as many as 2,000 Nebraskans caught in slavery (as part of the sex trade or other, such as sweatshop labor). Those most likely to be caught in this are troubled youth and runaways, vulnerable young people who should not have to sell their bodies and their lives away just to survive. But any kidnapped child (or adult) could be sold into human slavery.

LB 1145 would take the first steps to stopping this problem in our state. The bill, as amended by the Judiciary Committee, would do several things, one of which is to increase the penalties for pandering (pimping). Currently this is only a misdemeanor but under this bill it would become a Class IV Felony, punishable with up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. LB 1145 would also require that posters be placed in visible places at rest stops and strip clubs with information which would help a victim to gain assistance and would create a task force to investigate and study human trafficking in Nebraska. I hope that we find this is not a serious problem here in Nebraska and that we can stop it before it becomes one.

On Thursday, we debated bills on consent calendar, which is a way for the Legislature to manage its time more efficiently. It allows the body to shorten debate on non-controversial subjects and leave more time to debate more complicated or controversial issues. If a bill is unanimously passed out of a committee, the speaker may put it on consent calendar. Bills on consent calendar must be noted on the agenda at least 24 hours before debate begins. Any bills which are objected to, in writing, by at least three senators are removed from consent calendar. Once debate begins on these bills, debate is limited to fifteen minutes for each bill. This year we had 59 bill on consent calendar.

Greetings from Lincoln! We spent much of this past week debating the 2012 budget bills, LB’s 131, 968, and 969; and also the annual State Claims Bill, LB 1072. The budget bills, together, provide for how the revenue which the state collects is distributed. Generally, at the beginning of each Session, the Governor presents us with a proposed budget, which, after hearings and much debate, we, the Appropriations Committee, make changes and then present our budget recommendations to the full Legislature for debate.

This year I believe we have presented an innovative budget package. We have, for the first time in several years, had a little breathing room to work with – we have not had to make the severe cuts which we have done each year since I started in this body. This year we were able to recommend a partial restoration of the Governor’s proposed Medicaid provider rate cuts. We had contact from many Nebraskans about how important this step was. We also were able to provide for the increased money that is needed for child welfare reform.

We chose to provide funding for construction projects at our state colleges and universities. The money, if approved, will be used for improvements at the Oak Bowl at Peru State College, Armstrong Gym at Chadron State College, Allied Health programs at UNK, a cancer research facility at UNMC, and a vet diagnostic center for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. All of these are much-needed projects which will help further our educational system in our great state.

During the debate we also spent quite a bit of time discussing the Governor’s tax cuts which he proposed in LB 970. I have heard from many people on this issue, most of whom do not support LB 970, and I agree. If we were to implement tax cuts at the rate the Governor has proposed, we are opening ourselves up to inflating a likely budget shortfall which is projected for the next few years. This would necessitate further budget cuts which, frankly, we cannot afford. The cuts we have made during the past few years have been so deep that there is no “fat” left to trim from Nebraska’s budget. On Friday, we debated an amendment to the budget which may solve this problem. I believe, however, we still need (and will have) more debate before the Session is over.

The most debate came on the Claims Bill. This is not a bill which generally sees this much debate, but this year it is tied into the State’s Child Welfare problem. When the Department of Health and Human Services chose to privatize child welfare services, they made contracts with several providers throughout the state. These contracts were made with estimates of numbers of children and families who would need to be served and what services they would need. The reality far exceeded the projections and these providers were losing a lot of money. They simply could not provide the services necessary for the amount of money the state was paying them. This is one of the main reasons the privatization system failed.

We, as a state, need to pay these outstanding bills. As many of you know, we have providers in our community which were greatly affected by what happened and our community was not the only one. Nebraska is responsible for these kids who were given services by these providers and it is our responsibility to hold up our end of the bargain. I know that not every Senator agrees with this position, but I want to try to make right, even in a small measure, what went so wrong in the past couple of years.

Greetings from Lincoln! I am pleased that this past week we had debate on two of my bills. LB 842, the bill which would extend the sunset date on a program which makes it easier for people receiving Aid to Dependent Children assistance to work towards obtaining an Associate’s Degree, sailed through the first round of debate with no opposition. And LB 841, which makes changes to the overweight/overlength truck limits to bring us into compliance with Federal regulations was passed on Thursday.

Also this past week we had the second round of debate on the child welfare reform bills, all five of which advanced to Final Reading. On the same subject, we had the first round of debate on LB 998, a bill introduced by Senator Bob Krist of Omaha, which would eliminate the Foster Care Review Board and create the Foster Care Review Office. The new office would, in addition to being responsible for oversight of the foster care system, be required to track and analyze data regarding foster care and make recommendations for improving the system, and provide regular reports to the Legislature, including policy recommendations.

We spent much time debating two bills dealing with gambling issues. The first, LB 1067, was introduced by Senator Russ Karpisek of Wilbur. This bill would have provided for expanded Keno gaming by reducing the waiting period between games from five minutes to one minute. This bill failed to advance to the second round of debate.

The other gambling bill, LB 806, was introduced by Senator Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha. This bill would allow for betting on historic horseraces at racing tracks. There is much debate about what this actually means, with proponents claiming that it is a form of parimutuel wagering which involves skill in the same way as betting on live races does, and therefore should be allowed. I, and others who oppose expanded gambling in Nebraska, disagree. These machines are more similar to slot machines than to a live horserace. Only two states have allowed these machines, and in Arkansas the horse tracks have been turned almost into mini-casinos. I am not in favor of this in Nebraska and I do not believe these machines are the way to save the horseracing industry in our state.

A couple of other bills we discussed on General File this week were LB 782, introduced by Senator Beau McCoy of Omaha, which would require that annual reports by state agencies be submitted to the Legislature electronically. Many agencies are required by statute to submit these annual reports, and many are already submitted to us in electronic form. LB 1090, introduced by Senator Norm Wallman of Cortland, would allow for the awarding of grants for schools wishing to participate in the Department of Education’s Summer Food Service Program which helps provide food during the summer to very low income children. Some of these children, who are provided a nutritious lunch during the school year, would go hungry on weekends and during breaks without this program.

Greetings from Lincoln! On Tuesday, February 28, it was my privilege to listen to the Bluffs Middle School Brass Ensemble play in the Rotunda of the Capitol. They sounded wonderful! Several other groups from around the state also played for us during Music Education Week at the Capitol.

We spent the better part of two days this week addressing our child welfare system. This was done with a package of five bills, all of which advanced from General File to Select File. Here is a summary of each bill:

LB 821 creates the Nebraska Children’s Commission and the Office of Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare. The Commission will be responsible to create a statewide strategic plan for reform of the child welfare system by December 15, 2012, as well as have permanent oversight duties for the system. The Inspector General would be located within the Legislature’s Office of Public Counsel (Ombudsman’s Office) and will conduct investigations, audits, and reviews of the child welfare system.

LB 1160 would increase legislative oversight of the Nebraska child welfare system through an improved data collection system, increase child welfare outcome measurement through increased reporting, and require an independent evaluation of the child welfare system. Basically, by December of 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services must report to the Legislature their progress in developing a web-based, statewide, automated child welfare information system. They also must make use of an independent national consultant to complete an evaluation of the child welfare system. The bill would also require ongoing reports to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.

LB 949 was actually introduced by the Performance Audit committee and would require the Division of Children and Family Services of the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare a strategic plan for child welfare services and include it in their budget request to the Legislature during the next four years. That plan must identify the main purpose of each program, the goals for measuring progress in meeting that purpose, and benchmarks and time-frames for meeting those goals.

LB 820 deals mostly with reimbursement and payments. Nebraska’s foster care payments are the lowest in the nation – by far. This bill would provide for a temporary modest increase while a committee is created to study the issue and recommend a permanent rate structure.

LB 961 would return the case management of child welfare services back to the State of Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (ending the privatization of child welfare services). Among other things, the bill would also require the newly created Children’s Commission to establish a plan that would reduce the caseload of each caseworker, in order to provide better care for each child and family in the foster care system.

I believe this reform, as packaged in these five bills, is a very good thing. The Health and Human Services Committee of the Legislature, along with our Performance Audit Committee and the State Auditor did a lot of work in investigating what happened with the complete failure of our child welfare system. The committee put out a very comprehensive report which has informed all of us on what needs to be done to fix the system. We need to do everything we can to help these kids and families.

Greetings from Lincoln! We have begun to debate Senator, Committee, and Speaker Priority Bills. Each Senator may choose one bill as his or her priority bill, each committee chooses two, and the Speaker has twenty-five which are chosen from submissions by the Senators. From this point on in the Session, it is unlikely that we will debate any bills which are not priority bills, as we are already past the halfway mark. I believe we are in for some late nights during the next several weeks.

This past week we debated several priority bills which I think will be of interest to you. These three were all advanced to Select File. First was LB 735, introduced and prioritized by Senator Paul Schumacher of Columbus. LB 735 would allow governing bodies of community colleges and public power districts to hold certain meetings via video or teleconference. I think this could be very helpful for people in areas where they would otherwise need to drive a great distance to attend the meeting.

LB 996 was introduced by Senator John Wightman of Lexington and prioritized by Senator Les Seiler of Hastings. This bill would raise the age at which a person can drop out of high school from sixteen to eighteen. I believe that the more education a person has, the better they will be prepared for life. The United States has a dropout epidemic. According to a study entitled “Silent Epidemic”, almost one third of all public school students and nearly one half of African American, Hispanic, and Native American high school students fail to graduate with their class. Within just a few years of dropping out, many people are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, crime, prison, and/or broken homes.

According to the study, many students who dropped out said that they felt like they had too much freedom and too little discipline. Most wished that their parents and their high school teachers and administrators had higher expectations for them and had done more to keep them in class each day. I believe that our schools should do everything they can to retain students, and I am glad this bill has advanced to the second round of debate.

LR 358CA, introduced and prioritized by Senator Tom Carlson of Holdrege, would place on the ballot a measure that would allow the people of Nebraska to vote on whether to change our legislative term limit provision from two four-year terms to three. Personally, I do believe this is a good bill. I do not want to take away term limits entirely, since the people of this state did vote for them. However, since term limits have taken effect, we have seen some of the downsides to our senators having such a short time in office. During the debate on the floor, senators noted that if they had more time they could serve on different committees and gain more knowledge and experience in different subject areas. If this bill passes, the issue will be on the ballot at the general election in November.

Greetings from Lincoln! We continue to have floor debate on bills during the mornings and committee hearings in the afternoons. The Appropriations Committee, of which I am Vice Chair, has been studying the Governor’s budget recommendations as well as hearing testimony from State Agencies and our own Legislative Fiscal Analysts to work on crafting this year’s budget for our state.

On Wednesday, February 15, I will be introducing LB 842 before the Health and Human Services Committee. This bill would extend the sunset date of a law which I introduced in 2009 to assist people participating in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program to achieve their goals of obtaining a bachelor’s or associate’s degree. This bill originally had a sunset date of September 30, 2012 and LB 842 would extend that date to December 31, 2016. We have seen that this is already helping people to work their way out of poverty through education and I would like to see the program last longer. Also, LB 507, a similar bill which deals with GEDs or High School Diplomas,
has now advanced to Final Reading.

On Thursday, February 9, we debated LB 841 on General File. This is the bill I introduced at the request of the Nebraska Department of Roads to correct a portion of our law where we are not in compliance with Federal Regulations. If these changes are not made, Nebraska is at risk of losing approximately $24 million of federal funding. We are still working with our Federal Delegation of Senators and Representatives to enact a change to the laws which will bring us back to where we are currently. The bill advanced to Select File.

Also on Thursday, we debated a bill (LB 1118) which would provide tax incentives for large data center projects. LB 1118 was introduced by Senator Abbie Cornett of Bellevue and prioritized by Senator Galen Hadley of Kearney. This is a great bill which could bring wonderful economic benefits to our whole state. LB 1118 adds to our Nebraska Advantage Act opportunities for communities to expand their economic base with data centers in much the same way we have chosen to help attract other businesses to Nebraska. In our current global society computer data is the foundation. Many states have already used tax incentives to draw these companies, such as Google, to their states and it would be a great advantage to Nebraska to have them here. Through technology, these businesses can locate centers in small communities as well as big ones. And our Nebraska workforce is well placed to take advantage of this opportunity.

Greetings from Lincoln! I am very excited that my bill which would make it easier for low-income parents in Nebraska to pursue a high-school diploma or GED has passed through the first round of debate! We discussed LB 507 on Tuesday, January 31st, and I was encouraged by how easily the bill was advanced (with no “no” votes). LB 507 allows someone receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families to count their classroom or study time as part of their required work hours to continue receiving assistance. I believe education is vital for someone to get out of poverty, and I am pleased that the other members of the Legislature agree.

On Wednesday, February 8, I am introducing two bills before committee. The first, LB 949, deals with the ongoing issue of child welfare in Nebraska and is based on recommendations of the Legislative Performance Audit Committee as part of the LR 37 study of child welfare privatization. LB 949 would require that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) include a strategic plan for child welfare services in its budget request to the Legislature for the next two budget cycles. That plan must identify the main purpose of each program in the division, the goals for measuring progress in meeting that purpose, and benchmarks and time-frames for meeting those goals.

LB 1094 would allow any county with a population of 10,000 or less to vote on whether they would like to begin conducting all elections by mail. Currently, counties of that size can, if they choose, conduct certain special elections by mail, and I have heard from many people that it is much more convenient to do so. Sometimes driving to a polling place is nearly prohibitive to voting for some people, especially in our more rural counties where there may be only a few polling places for the whole county. I believe it will also be easier for some elderly or physically challenged people, and working parents or people who do not have 9-5 type work schedules, to simply receive their ballot in the mail and then mail it back in. Under LB 1094, either the county commissioners or the people of the county, by petition, can put this issue on the ballot for a vote. If the people chose to switch to an all vote by mail system, they will follow the procedures currently used for special elections by mail.

A few other states, such as Oregon and Washington have actually gone to a statewide vote by mail system and have found it increased voter participation and decreased costs, among other benefits. Those two states do have some similarities to Nebraska in that they have a few big cities but also a lot of rural areas and polls of voters there have shown that people really like the system, for the convenience especially. I would like Nebraskans to have this option.

Greetings from Lincoln! It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of January and we have been in Session for nearly a month. I think we are making good headway on the issues before us. We have spent time discussing rules regarding Robocalling (specifically in regards to political ads) in Nebraska with LB 418, introduced by Senator John Nelson of Omaha. We also have debated changes to how compliance checks are conducted by police officers using minors to find out whether businesses which sell alcohol are selling to minors without checking their ID’s (LB 60 introduced by Senator Bob Krist, also of Omaha).

At the end of the week we debated LB 276, Senator Brenda Council’s bill to abolish the death penalty and change Nebraska’s most severe criminal penalty to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As most of you are likely aware, I support the death penalty and will continue to fight against efforts to abolish it.

This past week we also debated LB 304, introduced by Senator Amanda McGill, of Lincoln. This bill would allow a physician to prescribe medication to treat an STD for the partner of the patient he or she diagnosed with the STD. This is an interesting idea, given the need to treat these diseases, however, I am a little concerned about it. I think that the partner, or partners, need to see a physician themselves, especially with potential for allergic or drug interaction reactions, and I cannot support this bill. The bill did not advance to the next round of debate.

On January 23, I introduced LB 841 before the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. This bill would make changes to exceptions by permit for overweight and over-length trucks in Nebraska. The passage of this bill will keep Nebraska in compliance with federal standards so that we will not be penalized with a loss of $24 million in federal roads funds. The hearing went well and the committee advanced the bill to General File. We are also still working on changes to the federal laws in this area.

I have two bills coming up for hearing soon. The first, LB 1019, will be heard by the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, January 31. This is a simple bill which appropriates funds for facility improvements at Chadron and Peru State Colleges. The buildings to be improved are the Armstrong Gymnasium at Chadron State College and the Oak Bowl at Peru State College.

LB 971, the bill I introduced on behalf of the Governor, which would merge the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Labor, will be heard by the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday, February 2. While I believe this is a good idea, to put these two agencies together under one director, the bill as introduced has some issues to be worked out. I intend for this to be a first step to merging the agencies, giving the new director time to work out a feasible plan of integration.