{"id":22718,"date":"2018-01-08T12:57:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=22718"},"modified":"2018-01-08T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T20:19:13","slug":"federal-fund-reporting-requirement-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=22718","title":{"rendered":"Federal fund reporting requirement advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators advanced a bill from general file Jan. 8 that would require annual reporting of federal funds received by state agencies that participate in the state budgeting process.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Stinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB611, introduced last session by Gering Sen. John Stinner, would require that reports be submitted to the state Department of Administrative Services (DAS) by Sept. 15 of each year that a budget request is due.<\/p>\n

Stinner said that federal funds comprised approximately 30 percent of the state\u2019s total budget in the last fiscal year. Requiring state agencies to provide more complete information regarding those funds would improve lawmakers\u2019 ability to plan and prioritize, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent behind this legislation is to provide a reporting mechanism to the state to hedge against fiscal stress further down the road,\u201d he said. \u201cAs legislators, it is imperative that we understand the complexities that often surround federal programs and foresee any unintended consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the bill, reports would include:
\n\u2022 the aggregate value of federal funds received in the previous fiscal year and the amount of those funds appropriated by the Legislature;
\n\u2022 the percentage of the agency\u2019s total budget constituted by federal funds;
\n\u2022 any requirement for a state match or promises made by the entity on condition of receipt of federal funds;
\n\u2022 the statutory objective that is being met by receipt of federal funds;
\n\u2022 an operating plan in the event that federal funds are reduced between 10 and 25 percent from the previous year;
\n\u2022 a second operating plan if federal funds are reduced by more than 25 percent; and
\n\u2022 a detailed list of federal funds with a foreseeable end date.<\/p>\n

An Appropriations Committee amendment, adopted 26-10, excluded the University of Nebraska and the state college system from the bill\u2019s provisions. The amendment also clarified that the bill would require that plans be submitted to DAS only.<\/p>\n

Stinner said the amendment would reduce the bill\u2019s fiscal note by approximately $630,000, down to roughly $130,000 in the first fiscal year and $156,000 in the second.<\/p>\n

The university and state colleges receive thousands of federal grants, he said, and much of the information outlined in the bill already is reported by those entities.<\/p>\n

Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford supported the bill and the amendment, saying it is important to see where Nebraska could be missing out on available federal funds. The state currently is 47th in per capita federal spending, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical for us \u2013 for our planning \u2013 to make sure we understand the sources of [federal] funds and obligations of those funds,\u201d Crawford said, adding that the state needs to be sure that it is getting the \u201cmost bang for our buck\u201d when it comes to investments.<\/p>\n

Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher supported the bill\u2019s provisions requiring state agency operational plans in the event of a loss of federal funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government has just committed to $1.5 trillion less in revenue,\u201d Schumacher said, \u201cAnd we know that if sanity prevails in D.C. to any degree, they\u2019re going to try to mitigate that $1.5 trillion loss by cutting money that is flowing to the states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nebraska needs to be prepared, he said, and should have operating plans in place that will indicate to lawmakers how big a cushion the state will need if those federal funds are cut.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell spoke in opposition, calling LB611 unnecessary. He said the information sought by the bill\u2019s provisions is readily available through the Legislature\u2019s fiscal office and the DAS website.<\/p>\n

If senators have questions and concerns about the use of federal funds, he said, they should start by obtaining and aggregating existing information rather than creating another layer of bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Speaker Jim Scheer of Norfolk noted that no bill with a general fund impact will move beyond the second round of debate this session. The state is facing a $200 million projected budget shortfall, he said, adding that he cannot \u201cin good conscience\u201d allow senators to consider passing any measure that requires general funds for its implementation.<\/p>\n

After adopting the committee amendment, senators advanced LB611 to select file on a 28-11 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators advanced a bill from general file Jan. 8 that would require annual reporting of federal funds received by state agencies that participate in the state budgeting process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-22718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appropriations","tag-sen-john-stinner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/LB611Stinner1-8-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22718"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22725,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22718\/revisions\/22725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}