Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate May 22, 2019 [] FOLEY: I call to order the eightieth day of the One Hundred Sixth Legislature, First Session. Senators, please record your presence. Roll call. Mr. Clerk, please record. CLERK: I have a quorum present, Mr. President. FOLEY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Are there any corrections for the Journal? CLERK: I have no corrections. FOLEY: Thank you, sir. Any messages, reports, or announcements? CLERK: Mr. President, your Committee on Enrollment and Review reports LB397, LB481, LB481A and LB593 to Select File. That's all that I have, Mr. President. FOLEY: Thank you, sir. While the Legislature is in session and capable of transacting business I propose to sign and do hereby sign LR136. (Doctor of the day introduced.) First item is LB657. Mr. Clerk. CLERK: Mr. President, LB657 is on Final Reading. Senator Wayne, I have two amendments, Senator, with notes you wish to withdraw specifically AM1860 and AM1913. Mr. President, Senator Wayne would move to return LB657 to consider AM1941. FOLEY: Senator Wayne, you're recognized to open on your motion. WAYNE: Colleagues-- thank you, Mr. President. The infamous hemp bill is back after a couple negotiations with the AG and a couple of other parties who had some last-minute concerns, so I'm going to explain what this amendment does. It actually closes a hole in-- not this bill, but actually closes a hole in current law. Current law, because we already have a hemp program and because other states have a hemp programs, if somebody gets caught with plant material, particularly under a pound-- I'm going to try to explain this the best that I can --but under a pound, it would be cost prohibited for counties to go out and test this plant material. So the issue was how can counties continue to test, and I'm going to use a 16-year-old with a joint, it will cost 25 to 50 bucks to get the plant material tested. Even if this bill doesn't pass, this issue is here. This is why it's an important amendment because currently, if this bill doesn't pass with this amendment, somebody can say this is hemp they have instead of a joint. If they do that, they 1 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate May 22, 2019 have to test it. What happens with testing, it costs $50 and the fine on hemp --or a joint, I mean, is 300 bucks. So it became cost prohibited to prosecute low-level marijuana users. And that's the current situation because other states are passing hemp programs. So what this bill does, does two things. One-- or this amendment does two things. So one, it says if you don't have proper documentation, one, the plant material can be seized by state patrol or any peace officer. Two, if you have plant material and it's not documented, it is a fine up to a $1,000. The reason why that's important because I just explained, if you have a joint, it's $300. This gives prosecutors two options to say, well, instead of testing the joint at 50 bucks, I can just charge you with a misdemeanor underneath this act for not having the proper documentation for the plant material. So this is like a huge loophole that we're closing that really has nothing to do with our bill, but this bill provides a segue for us to create this law to stop low-level users of plant products to deal with it. Second, there was concerns about the capital or the need from a Department of Ag with the $50,000 appropriation. Well, because it had a general impact fund, we had to remove that and what we did is we allowed or we opened up two cash funds for transfers within their department to be able to have the flexibility to monitor and use their inspectors in a way that can monitor hemp. So we have a Noxious Weed Inspector Fund. We opened that up to allow a noxious weed inspector also to be able to inspect hemp to help offset the cost until the hemp program and the collection of their fees is large enough to pay for itself. So it's almost like they are borrowing from cash funds to make sure that this keeps going until the hemp farmers and producers generate enough cash to offset their loan and to pay for it themselves, which we believe can happen in one to two years. So again, this is a simple amendment. This amendment was worked on by the County Attorneys Association and I want to thank Senator Hilgers for being a part of that conversation. This was also with the AG's Office and the Department of Ag to make sure that we close a loophole that we currently have. And again, whether this bill passes or not, that loophole is there because Montana, Kentucky, other people have hemp programs and so if you have-- and essentially from a practical standpoint, a pound or less of marijuana, somebody can argue it's hemp. A kid on the street can say, no, I got this from Kentucky, it's hemp. And our prosecutors have to go back and say, we have to test it. And because of the low-level of an ounce or less, which is a $300 fine, there's a cost prohibited to it. So we're creating a new misdemeanor class for up to $1,000 to close that loophole. And this is a very important amendment because we're going to have to deal with this regardless of whether this bill passes that people who have a pound or less can make that argument and the county prosecutors and state patrol have an expense that they're going to have to deal with that it's cost prohibited for testing, regardless of whether this bill passes or not. So this bill going forward actually closes a loophole and allows the department the flexibility it needs to oversee and make sure the hemp program and our farmers can adequately grow and it can be monitored. And with that, I would ask for a green vote and I'll be here to answer any questions. Thank you. FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Wayne. Debate is now open on Senator Wayne's motion to return the bill to Select File for a specific amendment. Senator Lowe. 2 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate May 22, 2019 LOWE: Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. I'm glad we've taken time on this bill because I believe Senator Wayne has come forth and made it better, not that I agree with it. We need to close these loopholes that the federal government has caused us by putting hemp legal in the Farm Act. We're going to find more problems with this bill and with hemp in Nebraska. If we are worried about our children, which we say we are, then we ought to take a look at what's happening before us today and in the past few days. We say we're always worried about the children, but hemp and smoking of hemp, there are no regulations on. It's not tobacco. Our children will be able to smoke hemp and get a slight high. And with that, I'll wait until it returns to Select File to continue my conversation. Thank you, Mr. President. FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Lowe. Senator Erdman. ERDMAN: Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. You know, we've had a lot of discussion about LB757 --LB657, excuse me, and we've talked about hemp production and there's been comments made about this is going to help the farm economy, this is going to save farms, this is going to improve people's incomes. I don't believe that to be the case. And I appreciated Senator Lowe's stick-to-itiveness in his comments and what he's tried to do to keep us on the right path. I'll be keeping track of watching to see exactly how much hemp is growing, and how much economic development this really does, and how many farmers it really helps. What this will do is create a bunch of new farmers. This will create a bunch of farmers who have never grown anything in their life who will grow hemp, if for many other reasons. So this is the wrong way to go. I appreciate that we have tightened it up. That was needed. I appreciate that. But as Calvin Coolidge once said, it is better to kill a bad bill than to pass a good bill and I believe this is not a good bill. Thank you. FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Erdman. Senator Chambers. CHAMBERS: Thank you. Mr. President and members of the Legislature, life for me is like a seamless web, a continuum. We do things along that continuum, but it continues to go. So yesterday is a part of what was. Today is what is. And I want to continue from what happened yesterday, not just with Senator Groene, but other things that were done. The Legislature yesterday reached a new low. So I had indicated that I will play the rest of the session according to the rules, if you want to call what happened by that term, which means I will take time and there are things I'm going to read into the record.