Dear friends and neighbors,
On March 12th, after weeks of passionate hearings and testimony, the committee hearings came to a close. The legislature has now moved to floor debate - beginning with priority bill selections. I hope you continue to stay in touch with me on any issue that is of importance to you throughout this process.
Each Senator is allowed to designate one bill as a personal priority bill and each committee can designate two committee priority bills. In addition, the Speaker designates another 25 priority bills. This session, I have prioritized LB260 - a bill to classify caring for a family member with a serious health condition as a qualification for unemployment. This would allow workers who need to temporarily leave employment to care for a family member with a serious health condition to be eligible for unemployment if they are ready and willing to rejoin the workforce.
This session, I am seeking a speaker priority on three bills - LB 121, LB 250, and LB 357: LB 121 would remove the lifetime ban on SNAP eligibility for people with certain drug convictions; LB 250 creates a voluntary registration for interior designers, allowing them to stamp their own documents if they choose; and LB 357 creates a "Youth in Care Bill of Rights" to inform foster and juvenile system-involved youth of their rights at regular intervals and ensure they know how to advocate for themselves. Each of these bills is vital in providing equitable support and assistance to our Nebraska residents.
Speaker Hilgers will be selecting his priority bills this Wednesday, March 17th. If you'd like to support any of these bills, I encourage you to reach out to Speaker Hilgers at mhilgers@leg.ne.gov or (402) 471-2673 and urge him to select them as speaker priorities. The significance of priorities is that these bills will jump to the top of the line in debate, essentially guaranteeing that it will get a chance to be debated and voted on by the full body before we adjourn. Since we hear so many bills and there's not enough time to debate all of them each year, those selected as a priority have the best chance of passage.
All the best,
Meg
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