NEBRASKA LEGISALTURE CLOSES UNPRECEDENTED SESSION WITH EMOTIONAL DEBATE AND BIG VOTES

LINCOLN — State legislators closed out a unique, coronavirus-interrupted session Thursday by passing a modest property tax relief bill and barely mustering the votes to adopt a ban on an abortion method.

Unlike most past sessions, there wasn’t a “soft landing” on the final day. Senators, including one fighting back tears, launched into an emotional debate that pitted personal liberties against the science of wearing face masks to fend off COVID-19.

It was somehow fitting — the final 17 days of the session were marked by angry exchanges and lectures to behave, at a tenor and volume not usually seen at the State Capitol. The session shut down in mid-March because of the coronavirus outbreak and resumed in late July with new safety practices and precautions.

But Gov. Pete Ricketts still made the traditional end-of-session appearance to thank senators for their work. This year, he highlighted the property tax bill, money for flood relief, a veterans tax cut, creation of a new career scholarship program and passage of the abortion method ban.

Thursday marked the final day on the legislative floor for State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, whose fiery speeches about racism and legendary procedural blockades of bills he hated often fomented frustration, discomfort and grumbling. Chambers, who is term-limited for a second time, has spent 46 years in the legislature.

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NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE TAKES ANTI-ABORTION BILL OVER FINISH LINE

LINCOLN- A bill that would stop D&E abortion procedures on a living fetus passed the last legislative hurtle Thursday. It will go to Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is expected to sign it into law. 

The bill (LB814) was stuck in committee after its hearing in February, and Lincoln Sen. Suzanne Geist, who introduced it, successfully moved to pull it from committee so it could be debated. Because of that, it came to the floor with no committee work or amendments, and so was passed as it was originally introduced. 

Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt, who led filibusters against the bill on all three levels of debate, continued to say the bill was given special treatment by Speaker Jim Scheer in scheduling. And she said Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, who presides over the Legislature and is an outspoken supporter of the bill, was allowed to run legislative strategy on it from the president's chair. 

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PEOPLE CELEBRATE TENURE OF SENATOR ERNIE CHAMBERS ON CAPITOL STEPS

LINCOLN- It was a surprise party that had to wait a few hours because the man to be celebrated was busy taking the last of his term-limited time to draw out voting on bills Thursday afternoon.

"Because I wasn't informed of this happening," Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers told the group gathered on the north steps of the Capitol, "I was on the floor of the Legislature doing what it was my job to do."

Educating, slowing things down, offering up words of wisdom or criticism. On this his last day, his goal was to determine how things were going to go and say the things he wanted to say. Or to be like the death angel at Passover, and let a bill proceed without a visit from the spirit of extended debate. But when he finally showed up, they cheered, and shouted their love for the 46-year veteran of the Legislature. And held up thank-you signs and Fight for Justice signs. One man even had what appeared to be an old reelection sign that read: "Friends of North Omaha Support Ernie Chambers State Legislature."

Thank you, Senator Chambers,Senator Pansing Brooks said, for being true to you.

"You have been irascible, aggravating, impossible and mind-boggling. You have followed the mission of Finley Peter Dunne, a 1898 writer who suggested the need to 'comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.' You have also been powerful, gentle, inspiring, compassionate, kind and, yes, loving. "In short, you have been exactly what Nebraska has needed for 46 years."

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MORE THAN 2,600 NEBRASKANS HAVE SIGNED UP FOR EXPANDED MEDICAID SO FAR

LINCOLN- More than 2,600 Nebraskans applied for health coverage during the first six days of enrollment for the state’s new Medicaid expansion program, officials with the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday.

As of Thursday, the department had received 2,692 applications, and more than 5,000 phone calls had been answered by Medicaid call centers from Saturday to Thursday, HHS officials said.Benefits under the new program, also known as Heritage Health Adult, will begin Oct. 1. The program covers working-age adults whose incomes fall below 138% of the federal poverty level — $17,609 for a single person or $36,156 for a family of four.

Most will be enrolled in the basic tier of services, which include physical and behavioral health care and prescription drugs.

Nebraska voters approved Medicaid expansion in the 2018 general election. State officials have taken more time implementing the new coverage than any other state. 

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SENATORS OFFER ADVICE AS THEY DEPART THE LEGISLATURE

LINCOLN- Senators gave eight years' worth of advice to their peers, and lots of thanks to family, staff and constituents. Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who is leaving after 46 years and two terms in this stretch, did not choose to do a speech. 

"So much of public service is choosing your words and choosing your battles," Senator Kate Bolz said, "but today, colleagues, I speak to you from my heart." "I want to leave you with this sincere request," she said. "Don't worship the false god of politics. Don't sacrifice at the altar of leverage. … And don't tell yourself that the ends justify the means and then ask yourself for forgiveness. We've seen too much of this. We've gone too far." 

Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue said a critical lesson she learned was to build as many personal relationships with as many senators as possible. Sen. Rick Kolowski of Omaha, who spent 41 years in an education career before coming to the Legislature, found joy this session in that former work by spending time with middle school students from Prairie Hill School on their climate change resolution.  Senator Howard asked for her fellow senators to be resilient, keep good humor, and to take care of themselves and each other.

Speaker Jim Scheer of Norfolk was the most emotional as he spoke to senators and thanked his wife and family. "It's been a wonderful eight years," he said.

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PROPOSAL WOULD SHIFT $2 MILLION FROM OMAHA POLICE BUDGET TO WORKFORCE, MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

OMAHA- Omaha City Council President Chris Jerram has drafted an amendment to the proposed 2021 budget to take funds from the Police Department and allocate them to employment and health services. Jerram is suggesting that $2 million, or 1.2%, be taken from the Omaha Police Department’s proposed $161.3 million budget and given to other programming.

Under Jerram’s amendment, $500,000 would be given to Heartland Workforce Solutions and $1.5 million to community health and human services for “behavioral health counseling, mental health crisis diagnosis, treatment and response, mental/behavioral health rehabilitation services and other related treatment, housing, safety and support services.”

As proposed, the police budget would account for 36.7% of all day-to-day city spending in 2021. This year, the police budget was 37.9% of the entire city budget, Stothert said. Mayor Stothert and Police Chief Todd Schmaderer swiftly opposed Jerram’s proposal.

“President Jerram’s amendment compromises public safety and contradicts his longtime support for the Omaha Police Department and his belief that we need more police officers, not fewer,” she said.

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NEBRASKA LAWMAKERS APPROVE 'MICRO-TIF' OR HOMEOWNERS, EARLIER PAROLE ELIGIBILITY

LINCOLN- Nebraska lawmakers passed a final round of bills Thursday before adjourning for the year, including one that would allow homeowners to postpone an increase in property valuation for doing major remodeling projects. The bill passed 49-0.

Legislative Bill 1021 was introduced by State Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, who dubbed it a “micro-TIF” measure. TIF, or tax-increment financing, has been used to encourage commercial redevelopment projects in the past. The mechanism allows developers to pay property taxes on the redevelopment valuation for a fixed number of years.

LB 1004, introduced by Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, aims to help with the overcrowding of Nebraska prisons. Inmates now become eligible for parole when they have served half of their minimum sentence.The new bill would make them eligible to be considered for parole at whichever date is earlier. Inmates still would have to go before the Parole Board and win approval to be released.

Other measures include flood mitigation, and workforce housing

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COURT SAYS DAPL CAN STAY OPEN

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday the Dakota Access Pipeline can keep shipping oil while the court hears arguments over whether the Trump administration failed to conduct a proper environmental review of the project. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said it did not think the Army Corps of Engineers made a strong case that the district court had erred in an underlying ruling that it should complete an environmental review of the pipeline's crossing over the Missouri River.

Next up: The appeals court fast-tracked the hearings by ordering the sides to wrap up briefing by Sept. 30, with oral arguments to follow in October or early November.

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TC ENERGY, LABOR UNIONS REACH KEYSTONE AGREEMENT

The developer of the Keystone XL project announced Wednesday it had reached a project labor agreement with four U.S. labor unions, despite a recent federal court ruling to keep the project frozen. TC Energy said it reached the agreement to complete the pipeline with the Laborers International Union of North America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters. The company said the Keystone XL project would support the creation of 42,000 U.S. jobs, including 10,000 construction jobs. It also announced it would contribute $10 million to create a "Green Jobs Training Program" to train union workers in the developing renewable-energy sector. 

2020 vision: The announcement could up the pressure in the November election. Trump backs the oil pipeline project, while his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, has said he would rescind the pipeline's border-crossing permit, effectively killing the project should he be elected president. But Biden has also tried not to alienate blue-collar workers throughout his campaign, pitching his clean energy plan as a union-job creator.

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INTELLIGENCE DISPUTES FUEL RARE PUBLIC ACRIMONY AMONG GANG OF EIGHT

WASHINGTON - The group of congressional leaders responsible for reviewing the nation’s most closely held secrets is engaged in an unusual and bitter partisan fight over how much information to share with the public about election interference — all while lawmakers and administration officials seek to prevent 2016-style meddling from foreign countries.

The public spat between the Democratic and Republican sides of the so-called Gang of Eight, less than 100 days before Americans go to the polls, is highly unusual for the group, whose obligations normally rise above the political fray and rarely descend publicly into the partisan squabbles that define Capitol Hill.

The fundamental disagreement between the Democratic and Republican sides of the Gang of Eight centers on how much information about foreign threats should be made public. While Democrats have urged more transparency, Republicans have warned about the potentially dangerous precedent that would set. As a result, the Democratic and Republican sides of the group have issued dueling statements and demands on subjects on which they are normally unified.

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NEBRASKA LAWMAKERS PASS ERNIE CHAMBERS’ FINAL BILL, WHICH REQUIRES BIAS TRAINING FOR POLICE

LINCOLN - Nebraska lawmakers passed what almost certainly will be the last bill of State Sen. Ernie Chambers’ legislative career Friday.

Legislative Bill 924 would require sheriffs and other law enforcement officers to take two hours of anti-bias and implicit bias training every year. The training would be considered part of agencies’ efforts to minimize apparent or actual racial profiling.

After senators voted 49-0 to pass the bill, Speaker of the Legislature Jim Scheer of Norfolk took the opportunity to note the occasion and to congratulate Chambers on his record-setting career in the Nebraska Legislature.

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NEBRASKA LAWMAKERS PASS ERNIE CHAMBERS’ FINAL BILL, WHICH REQUIRES BIAS TRAINING FOR POLICE

LINCOLN - Nebraska lawmakers passed what almost certainly will be the last bill of State Sen. Ernie Chambers’ legislative career Friday.

Legislative Bill 924 would require sheriffs and other law enforcement officers to take two hours of anti-bias and implicit bias training every year. The training would be considered part of agencies’ efforts to minimize apparent or actual racial profiling.

After senators voted 49-0 to pass the bill, Speaker of the Legislature Jim Scheer of Norfolk took the opportunity to note the occasion and to congratulate Chambers on his record-setting career in the Nebraska Legislature.

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BILL TO ADD HAIRSTYLES TO DEFINITION OF RACE CLARIFIED, RETURNED TO FINAL READING

LINCOLN – A bill on final reading got more debate Monday when Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh made changes to improve and clarify it.

The bill (LB1060) would add hairstyles to the definition of race. As amended by Cavanaugh, the bill would say simply: Race includes, but is not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.

Protective hairstyles can be those that are not chemically treated to straighten or those in which the ends are tucked away and less prone to knotting and snagging, protecting roots and hairlines. Those would include dreadlocks and twists.

Cavanaugh made changes to the original proposal because of an email from Attorney General Doug Peterson's office that said it would be advisable to strike a section of the bill to clarify the bill does not add a protective class. So she amended the bill to make it more concise and make it clear the definition of race is inclusive of hair textures and protective styles.

Cavanaugh's amendment was adopted on a 34-0 vote and the bill returned to final reading.

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FILLING OUT FINANCIAL AID FORM BY HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS COULD BECOME NEBRASKA REQUIREMENT

LINCOLN - The Legislature advanced a bill Tuesday that would require public school students to fill out an application for financial aid for college, called FAFSA — Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The bill (LB1089), introduced by Omaha Sen. Tony Vargas, would also allow a parent or guardian to decline to submit such an application, or a principal to authorize a student declining to fill out the form. Each school would have to report how many students submit the applications.

Filling out the FAFSA would be a graduation requirement, he said, unless the requirement is waived.

Vargas said if the bill passes and is signed into law, Nebraska would be the fourth state to require the financial aid applications. Louisiana requires FAFSA completion and has the highest rate of completion, he said, accompanied by an increase in high school graduation and college attendance.

Senators voted 28-9 to advance the bill to a second round of debate.

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NEW NEBRASKA COMPROMISE PROPERTY TAX RELIEF PLAN EMERGES

LINCOLN - The Legislature's Revenue Committee on Tuesday rushed to the floor a last-ditch property tax relief compromise package negotiated by seven legislative leaders in the fading days of a session scheduled to adjourn next week.

The proposal would increase state property tax relief by $125 million in the first year, gradually rising to $375 million by the fifth year and then increasing at the same rate as the statewide increase in property tax valuation.

Benefits would be delivered in the form of a refundable state income tax credit for local school property taxes paid, and that new property tax offset would be in addition to the $275 million in property tax relief currently provided by the state property tax credit cash fund.

The Revenue Committee sent the new package to the floor on a 6-0 vote, with Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue not voting. Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte was absent at the time of the vote.

Revenue Committee Chairwoman Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn said she believes "prospects on the floor are very good. "Everybody won't get everything they want, but everybody's going to get something," she said.

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GOV. RICKETTS: DECISIONS TO REOPEN SCHOOLS MUST REST WITH POLICYMAKERS

LINCOLN - Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday that policymakers, rather than health experts, should decide whether schools should reopen to students.

Policymakers should take advice from different sources, including health experts, but have to base their decisions on the “big picture.”

At a press conference Monday, Ricketts was asked about the recommendation of health officials at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health that schools should consider staying closed when the number of COVID-19 cases in the community exceeds 50 per million population per day.

“Policymakers need to make these decisions,” Ricketts said, “because when doctors say that, they’re only looking at a very, very narrow part” of the situation.

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RICKETTS DEFENDS HIS STANCE THAT MASK MANDATES ARE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE, WOULD ENCOURAGE RESISTANCE

LINCOLN - Under a flurry of questions from reporters, Gov. Pete Ricketts on Wednesday defended his position that mandates to wear masks to fend off COVID-19 — like one being considered in Omaha and one in place in Lincoln — are counterproductive.

"Mandates would actually encourage resistance and we'd get less people using masks," Ricketts said.

The conservative Republican governor, during a press conference on a different subject on Wednesday, faced a bevy of questions about his threat to file a lawsuit if the Douglas County Health Director, Adi Pour, carried out a plan to mandate mask wearing in the county.

When asked if a mask mandate would aid Omaha residents in fighting off the coronavirus, Ricketts said Wednesday that he didn't think so. Asking people to "do the right thing" — as Ricketts regularly does at his press events — is more effective than using the "heavy hand" of government, he said.

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BAN ON ABORTION METHOD OVERCOMES FILIBUSTER, ADVANCES IN NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE

LINCOLN - Nebraska lawmakers shut down a filibuster and advanced a bill Wednesday to ban a type of second-trimester abortion in the state.

Legislative Bill 814, introduced by State Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln, drew 34 votes on a filibuster-ending cloture motion. The motion needed 33 to succeed. Senators then gave the bill 34-9 first-round approval.

The action came a week after Geist said she did not have votes for cloture. But a week of work and a promise of amending the bill got it over the first hurdle. LB 814 seeks to ban a common second-trimester abortion method known medically as dilation and evacuation. The procedure involves dilating a woman’s cervix and removing the fetus in pieces. Opponents call the procedure dismemberment abortion.

Under the bill it would be a Class IV felony, punishable by up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine, for a doctor to perform such an abortion. The bill also would allow a doctor to be sued for performing the procedure. The woman having such an abortion could not be charged.

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NEBRASKA LAWMAKERS FINDS NEW WAY TO PUSH LGBT DISCRIMINATION BAN

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Legislature will soon be asked to affirm the U.S. Supreme Court decision barring job discrimination based on sexual orientation and to declare to employers and workers that the state is “welcoming and inclusive for all.”

Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln said a majority of state lawmakers have already signed on to a resolution, which she introduced Monday, affirming that sentiment. She said such resolutions can’t be filibustered. And while resolutions don’t have the legal force of law, she said passage would send a needed message.

Pansing Brooks said 27 of the state’s 49 lawmakers have already signed on to the resolution, and there are other supporters who were absent Monday when she introduced it. Among the co-signers is Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk, the speaker of the Legislature, which could help the measure avoid other procedural hurdles.

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TEMPERS FLARE AS FILIBUSTERS CONTINUE, BUT NEBRASKA LAWMAKERS ADVANCE PAROLE REFORM BILL

LINCOLN - Emotions usually get charged up during the closing days of a legislative session, but an unusually fiery speech from State Sen. Steve Lathrop about the growing partisanship in the Legislature drew applause Tuesday.

Lathrop, an attorney who usually keeps his emotions and speaking volume in check, grew incensed after nearly 30 last-minute amendments were filed by Gretna Sen. Andrew LaGrone in an attempt to kill Lathrop’s bill to give more prison inmates the opportunity for parole.

Legislative Bill 1004, Lathrop said, had the rare support of the state’s criminal prosecutors and the Omaha police union, because they know that inmates who are under parole supervision adjust to life outside prison better than those inmates who just serve out their time and walk out of prison. The proposal, he said, grew out of a suggestion from the head of the Nebraska Parole Board, Rosalyn Cotton.

LaGrone later withdrew his amendments, and LB 1104 easily advanced from first-round debate. But before that, Bayard Sen. Steve Erdman reminded Lathrop that he had filibustered one of his bills. So, Erdman said, don’t get so “righteous” when a senator seeks to kill your proposals.

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