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.