Transcript Prepared by Clerk of the Legislature Transcribers Office Floor Debate July 28, 2020 HUGHES: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber, Chamber for the fiftieth day of the One Hundred Sixth Legislature, Second Session. Our chaplain for today is Senator Blood. Please rise. BLOOD: T hank you. For those who believe there is a God who bends his ear to listen, let us pray. We pray today for our vulnerable populations. Please protect Nebraska's elderly and those suffering from chronic disease. Please watch over those struggling financially right now, especially those who are uninsured. We pray for Nebraska's families with young children at home. We lift up these parents and caretakers and pray that they can grow their networks of support and find solutions to real daily problems like affordable childcare and what options are best to educate their children. We pray for our frontline healthcare workers and those deemed essential. Please keep them and their families safe and healthy. We pray for those who have and will continue to protest. We do hear you. We do see you. We pray for those who are home and dealing with mental health or other issues that have them feeling overwhelmed, unloved, or unnoticed. May they be able to find the support they need and find the strength they need to move forward. We pray also today for our colleagues, that we all make decisions based on the wants and needs of our constituents across the state. Give us a keen understanding that the laws we make should not be about our personal opinions or personal likes and dislikes, but of those we represent, and help to give us those-- help give us those same people a clear voice in the Legislature. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard the senators' hearts and their minds. Father, we praise you for the gift of unity that the spirit creates in our relationships. Lastly, we pray for those infected and the sick with COVID-19. Please sustain their bodies and lift up their spirits, embrace their families, especially those who can't be with their loved ones when they are needed most. In your name, we pray, amen. HUGHES: Thank you, Senator Blood. I call to order the fiftieth day of the One Hundred Sixth Legislature, Second Session. Senators, please record your presence. Roll call. Mr. Clerk, please record. CLERK: I have a quorum present, Mr. President. HUGHES: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Are there any corrections for the Journal? 1 of 128 Transcript Prepared by Clerk of the Legislature Transcribers Office Floor Debate July 28, 2020 CLERK: I have no corrections. HUGHES: Thank you. Are there any messages, reports or announcements? CLERK: M r. President, Enrollment and Review reports LB927 as correctly engrossed. That's the only item I have. HUGHES: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. We will now proceed to the first item on the agenda. Mr. Clerk. CLERK: M r. President, returning to LB1008, major appro-- appropriations bill. Appropriations Committee amendments were considered and adopted yesterday. When the Legislature left the issue pending, Senator Cavanaugh's AM3205. HUGHES: Senator Cavanaugh, would you please give us a brief reminder of what your amendment does? CAVANAUGH: G ood morning, Mr. President. Yes. My amendment takes control of the unspent, unallocated CARES Act funds that have come to our state and allocates a portion of them to several program areas within the Department of Health and Human Services. HUGHES: Thank you, Senator Cavanaugh. Senator Blood, you're recognized. BLOOD: T hank you, Senator. I stand in support of Senator Cavanaugh's amendment and the underlying bill. And with that said, I want to tell everyone a story. And not a silly story with a moral that I found in Reader's Digest or on the Internet, but a story that will hopefully speak truth to power in support of this amendment. So when the pandemic hit Nebraska in March, the Legislature was shut down. We came back and approved funding to make sure Nebraskans were protected. But then we went back to our jobs, our farms, our homes, our lives. But I felt, as I know many did in this room, that there was still much more work to be done. And so my office, my friends and volunteers helped me make calls. We made calls to area seniors, we made calls to area families, we made calls to area businesses, over 18,000 calls in all. And if we couldn't reach them by phone, we reached out to them by mail. We asked the number one most important question, are you OK? Can we help? What resources can we offer to you? And as a result, we helped hundreds of people, not only in District 3, but 20 percent of the people that we ended up helping were from other districts as far away as Kearney because word got out that we wanted to help. We 2 of 128 Transcript Prepared by Clerk of the Legislature Transcribers Office Floor Debate July 28, 2020 provided cleaning supplies, food and resources to Neb-- to Nebraska residents. Like many offices, we advocated on their behalf because of the backlog of unemployment. We delivered healthy snacks and hand sanitizers to first responders and hand sanitizer to area childcare centers who were still providing services for parents who were still working and in a panic because no hand sanitizer could be found, and much, much more. So I participated in Senator Cavanaugh's online listening sessions, and I had my own as well. And I heard the concerns of our residents and nonprofits that provide services to these residents. I've watched the federal government continue to toss out money for immediate relief, yet still ignoring the systemic problems that caused these already struggling families to struggle even more. Sure, they can go and tighten their belts, as was discussed on the floor yesterday. But here's the thing. Eventually, when you tighten something enough, you choke it. You kill that person off. And during this whole time, with all that our office did and other offices did, we could still see people suffering. And I still felt helpless and wanted to do more. And I remembered when Mr. Feeken, my high school government teacher, talked about the Depression where 20 percent of the nation's schoolchildren were malnourished. School budgets were cut. There were tens of millions out of work. Food riots broke out. And our parents and our grandparents started to question what they've been taught, and that is that if a man worked hard enough, he would always be able to take care of himself and his family. So if you don't like this amendment and what this amendment proposes to do, I've heard some really good suggestions on the floor from people like Senator Lathrop. I've heard many of you say that you do want to help. So this is our opportunity to come together and find a way to do that very thing. Go over to Senator Cavanaugh, work with Senator Cavanaugh. If we can make this better, I don't know anybody more flexible than Senator Cavanaugh. Nebraska is-- I heard somebody laugh on that. I think she's flexible. Nebraska is a pretty great state to live and to raise our families. And I want to keep it this way. I don't know how we can hear these voices, how we can see Nebraskans' faces-- HUGHES: One minute. BLOOD: - -coming to us for help and not reach across the aisle and work together in this, in true bipartisan fashion to make this amendment better and to make Nebraska a better place to live. Thank you. HUGHES: Thank you, Senator Blood. Senator Cavanaugh, you're recognized. 3 of 128 Transcript Prepared by Clerk of the Legislature Transcribers Office Floor Debate July 28, 2020 CAVANAUGH: G ood morning, colleagues. I wanted to respond to some of the quest-- the questions that were made yesterday. The CARES, the CARES Act-- sorry, the CARES Act requires that payments, that the payments from the coronavirus relief fund only be used to cover expenses that, one, are necessary expenditures incurred due to a public health emergency with respect to the corona disease; or two, were not accounted for in the budget, most recently approved as of March 27, 2020, the date of the enactment of the CARES Act for the state or government; and three, were incurred during that period, the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020. The purposes of AM-- the purposes proposed in AM3205 are in line with federal law and guidance for corona relief-- coronavirus relief funds. The CRF guidance states: The requirement that expenditures be incurred due to the public health emergency means that expenditures must be used for actions taken to respond to the public health emergency. These may include expenditures incurred to allow the state, territorial, local or tribal government to respond directly to the emergency, such as by addressing medical or public health needs, as well as expenditures incurred to respond to second order effects of the emergency, such as by providing economic support to those suffering from employment or business interruptions due to COVID-19. Although a broad range of uses is allowed, revenue replacement is not permissible. Use of funds-- use of fund payments. The appropriations in AM3205 would fall, would all fall under the eligible purposes list, listed in number 5 in the CRF guidance: Expenses associated with the provision of economic support in connection with COVID-19 public health emergency.