Session convenes; bills introduced

Lawmakers convened Jan. 4 to begin bill introduction for the 102nd Legislature, second session.

Among the measures introduced were:

• LB717, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Brenda Council, which would change school board election and membership provisions;
• LB723, sponsored by Hoskins Sen. Dave Bloomfield, which would change provisions relating to small systems under the Nebraska Safe Drinking Water Act;
• LB724, sponsored by Valentine Sen. Deb Fischer, which would change commercial driver medical examination provisions and prohibit texting while driving a commercial motor vehicle;
• LB736, sponsored by Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher, which would require provision of secret ballot envelopes for elections;
• LB747, sponsored by Kearney Sen. Galen Hadley, which would withdraw from and repeal the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact;
• LB749, sponsored by Bellevue Sen. Abbie Cornett, which would exempt indoor tanning services from sales and use taxes;
• LB753, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery, which would create funds and provide funding for childhood obesity prevention measures through sales taxation of soft drinks;
• LB765, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, which would change bidding requirements relating to contracts with providers of certain health and social services;
• LB767, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Gwen Howard, which would require records of dates and hours of work for state officers and employees; and
• LR358CA, sponsored by Holdrege Sen. Tom Carlson, a proposed constitutional amendment to change legislative term limits to three terms.

New bills may be introduced for the first 10 legislative days, or until Jan. 19.

A complete list of bills introduced Jan. 4 is available at NebraskaLegislature.gov.

Gov. Dave Heineman’s State of the State address is scheduled for Jan. 12. Committee hearings are scheduled to begin on Jan. 17 and continue through February.

The session will last 60 legislative days and is tentatively scheduled to adjourn April 12.