Hazing bill advances

Several important and noteworthy bills were advanced or stopped this past week.

I am glad that LB 710, the bill which I introduced to protect younger Nebraskans from hazing, was advanced unanimously by the Legislature from General to Select File.

LR 378 CA, a resolution by Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, would place a question on this November's ballot to add an amendment to the Nebraska state constitution recognizing and protecting our right to farm.

The resolution was advanced out of the Agriculture Committee on Monday, and, as Sen. Kuehn's priority bill, will now be debated by the whole body of the Legislature in coming weeks.

A long-standing discussion about how Nebraska allocates its electoral votes is once again happening in the Unicameral. Nebraska is one of only two states, along with Maine, which divides its Electoral College votes for presidential elections. Our five votes are divided as follows: two votes go to the winner of the popular vote in the state, and the winner of the popular vote in each of our three congressional districts gets one vote.

LB 10, by Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, was debated for eight hours in 2015 and passed from General to Select file. But its progress was halted when a motion to invoke cloture failed. However, Sen. Hilkemann, also from Omaha, has made it his priority bill for this session, meaning that it will now return to the floor on Select File, with two rounds of debate to go before passage.

A bill to allow assisted suicide, introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers, stalled out in the Judiciary committee this past week, after a motion to move it out of committee came up against a 4-4 vote.

A piece of good news with regard to Nebraska's budget is that the Revenue Forecasting Board met again in February and raised revenue projections for the current and upcoming fiscal years. In contrast to a less optimistic outlook the Legislature had been expecting at the outset of the session, the new estimate means an additional boost for the emergency cash reserve fund.

I always enjoy hearing from the Nebraskans I represent. Please feel free to contact my office with any questions or concerns that you might have. My email address is dhughes@leg.ne.gov and my phone number is (402) 471-2805.

You can read more about bills and other work of the Legislature at www.nebraskalegislature.gov, and you can click on the Live Video Streaming NET logo to watch sessions, hearings, and other Capitol events.