Since the state legislature is now in the interim between regular sessions, most of its public-policy process is focused on interim studies. They stem from resolutions introduced and passed rather routinely during the last 15 days or so of the 2014 session, which ended April 17.
In total, just about a hundred interim-study resolutions were introduced. Per general practice, each was assigned by the Legislature’s Executive Board to one of the standing committees, based upon subject-matter jurisdiction of the issues involved.
Between now and early December, the committees will conduct studies as they deem necessary and appropriate. Reports to the Executive Board will ensue.
Each committee has submitted a priority listing of the studies assigned to it. It’s not set in stone, but those given higher priority are likely to have at least one public hearing. Others probably will have some staff work or perhaps little or no attention at all.
The significance of interim studies is that most are either continuations of interest in a public-policy idea that was the subject of previous legislation or precursors of legislation that is likely to be introduced in the next session.
In addition to the interim-study resolutions, this year’s Legislature also adopted four resolutions that authorize studies by special committees. These involve some weighty stuff:
LR 400 has resulted in appointment of a special investigative committee of seven legislators to study the adequacy of staffing and training of state employees working within ACCESSNebraska. It’s a system of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services intended to efficiently determine public-assistance eligibility and provide service-delivery.
LR 422 is continuation of a process started last year with LR 22. The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee and its Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee are jointly developing policy recommendations for transformation of the health-care system.
LR 424 is probably the most unique of all. Pursuant to it, the Executive Board has appointed seven highly-regarded legislators to a Department of Correctional Services Special Investigative Committee. This committee will study the extensive circumstances of Nikko Jenkins’ incarceration and release. In part, Jenkins was charged with three homicides that occurred after he was released from Department custody pursuant to a “good time” policy.
LR 444 creates a special committee of 10 legislators to develop recommendations for evaluating Nebraska’s business tax incentives.
Of the regular interim studies, here are a few the Catholic Conference will be monitoring:
LR 601 is the number-one priority among 20 resolutions assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee. It calls for in-depth assessment of the impacts of both implementing and not implementing the expansion of Medicaid eligibility as authorized and funded by the federal Affordable Care Act. The assessment will categorically focus on significant contexts: the state as a whole, rural counties, hospitals and the newly eligible, which includes those in a “coverage gap” because their incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid, but too low to qualify for subsidized participation in the ACA marketplace.
LR 553 is the Judiciary Committee’s third priority among 11 interim studies under its jurisdiction. It prescribes a review of state and federal policies related to driver licensing for immigrants who are lawfully present in the U.S. Its foremost purpose is to examine Nebraska’s current, illogical policy of denying drivers’ licenses to age-eligible young people who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals by the Department of Homeland Security.
LR 539 is number six out of 20 for the Health and Human Services Committee. It calls for studying whether the maximum payment rate in the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program is adequate to meet the goals of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families public-assistance program. The rate has been static for a long time and is most likely not adequate.
The Business and Labor Committee received only three interim studies. Even though LR 554 is listed third in priority, it is significant and substantive; it pertains to labor trafficking.
And from the consequences-of-bad-ideas category there’s the Judiciary Committee’s second priority, LR 520: “to examine the problems that (Nebraska) law enforcement is encountering since Colorado legalized the sale and recreational use of marijuana.”
Information about all of the interim-study resolutions, including the scheduling of public hearings, is available from the Legislature’s website: www.nebraskalegislature.gov.
And finally…..
Sadness has been felt at the State Capitol. The Omaha World Herald’s Joe Duggan reported it well:
“Severe thunderstorms…broke the hearts of those who followed two peregrine falcon chicks atop the State Capitol.
“A wildlife biologist blamed high winds for sending the 17-day-old birds to their deaths… from a nest outside the capitol’s 18th floor.” One chick was found on a capitol courtyard and the other on a second-story roof.
“The daily development of the young falcons could be viewed on a live webcam, which received about 1,000 on-line ‘visits’ per day.” Also, a video monitor was located near the Capitol’s gift shop and cafeteria. It was a popular stop for personnel and visitors. It’s dark now.
