Senators adjourned this morning, heading to afternoon hearings before an anticipated four-day break ahead of tomorrow’s recess day and Monday’s holiday. Before the break, more senators and committees designated their priority bills, including:
- The HHS Committee prioritized LB1173, a bill that creates a work group for child welfare system reform
- Sen. Vargas prioritized Sen. DeBoer’s LB741, a bill that improves state data collection on stillbirths to better understand their cause.
- The Urban Affairs Committee prioritized Sen. Wayne’s LB1024, a bill that allocates federal funding to and creates a North Omaha Covid-19 recovery grant program.
The deadline for senators and committees to designate priority bills is Tuesday. Several senators have yet to decide. A full list of priority designations can be found here.
Next week’s committee hearings
Below are the committee hearings scheduled for next week of bills we are following. Remember that online comments that you want part of the record need to be submitted the day before the hearing by noon.
For a full list of bills we’re following and hearing dates, view our bill tracker. For a full schedule of next week’s hearings, refer to the posted hearing schedule.
Tuesday, February 22nd:
- Education Committee
- LB852 (Day): Requires school districts to have a behavioral health point of contact who has knowledge of community service providers and resources available.
- LB852 (Day): Requires school districts to have a behavioral health point of contact who has knowledge of community service providers and resources available.
- Appropriations Committee
- LB1055 (McDonnell): Allocates $50 million in ARPA funds to DHHS to create a grant program for hospitals to pay nurse bonuses.
- LB1066 (Stinner): Allocates $5 million in ARPA funds for grants for rural hospital behavioral healthcare beds and $28 million to the University of Nebraska for behavioral health education, including workforce training, telehealth services in rural areas, and stipends for provisionally-licensed healthcare workers.
- LB1172 (Hilkemann): Allocates $37 million in ARPA funds for rate increases for providers of developmental disability services.
- LB1183 (Aguilar): Allocates $25 million in ARPA funds to DHHS for grants to federally qualified health centers for capital projects to expand care access
- LB1269 (Murman): Uses $10 million in ARPA funds to give DHHS to pay student debt owed by healthcare professionals.
Wednesday, February 23rd:
- HHS Committee
- Appropriations Committee
- LB1267 (Vargas): Allocates ARPA funds to various state commissions to hire health equity liaisons.
- LB1267 (Vargas): Allocates ARPA funds to various state commissions to hire health equity liaisons.
Thursday, February 24th:
- Appropriations Committee
- LB1063 (Morfeld): Allocates $5 million in ARPA funds to Dept. of Labor to increase the number of apprentices, especially those impacted by COVID-19 and provide premium pay.
- LB1167 (Flood): Allocates $30 million in ARPA funds to the Dept. of Economic Development and $20 million in ARPA to the Dept. of Labor to implement grant programs to enhance and retain the state’s workforce.
- Government Committee
- LB1077 (Ben Hansen): Limits how public schools, colleges, and other government entities can train staff and students on ideas related to sex and race and prohibits providing school credit to high school students who work with nonprofits that lobby. CSN is opposed to this bill.
- LB1077 (Ben Hansen): Limits how public schools, colleges, and other government entities can train staff and students on ideas related to sex and race and prohibits providing school credit to high school students who work with nonprofits that lobby. CSN is opposed to this bill.
- HHS Committee
Friday, February 25th:
- Appropriations Committee
- LB1075 (Stinner): Allocates $1.8 million in ARPA funds to DHHS to fund pediatric trauma centers to purchase technology for telehealth mental health services.
- LB1076 (Stinner): Allocates $600,000 in ARPA funds for DHHS to contract with a pediatric trauma center to develop software to streamline coordination of care for children with medically complex conditions enrolled in medicaid.
- LB1254 (Ben Hansen): Allocates $2 million in ARPA funds to DHHS to support youth who have aged out of foster care, including workforce training and supportive housing.
- Judiciary Committee
- LB772 (Day): Prohibits hospitals from sending unpaid bills from domestic violence to debt collectors.
- LB772 (Day): Prohibits hospitals from sending unpaid bills from domestic violence to debt collectors.
- HHS Committee
- LB1106 (Day): Relaxes qualifications for a mental health practitioner license.
- LB1106 (Day): Relaxes qualifications for a mental health practitioner license.