Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate April 09, 2018 [LB14 LB44 LB75 LB117 LB194 LB389 LB449 LB670 LB708 LB731 LB731A LB738 LB751 LB756 LB788 LB791 LB791A LB792 LB793 LB807A LB807 LB845 LB861 LB873 LB883 LB944A LB947 LB948 LB953 LB989 LB994 LB994A LB998 LB1040 LB1058 LB1069 LB1081A LB1081 LB1089 LB1090 LB1099 LB1112 LB1115 LB1120 LB1121 LB1121A LR487] PRESIDENT FOLEY PRESIDING PRESIDENT FOLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber for the fifty-seventh day of the One Hundred Fifth Legislature, Second Session. Our chaplain for today is Senator Watermeier. Please rise. SENATOR WATERMEIER: (Prayer offered.) PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Watermeier. I call to order the fifty-seventh day of the One Hundred Fifth Legislature, Second Session. Senators, please record your presence. Roll call. Mr. Clerk, please record. CLERK: I have a quorum present, Mr. President. PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Are there any corrections for the Journal? CLERK: No corrections, Mr. President. PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, sir. Any messages, reports, or announcements? CLERK: Mr. President. Enrollment and Review reports LB751, LB1121, LB1121A to Final Reading. That's all that I have. [LB751 LB1121 LB1121A] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Members, we'll now proceed to the agenda, Select File, which requires a number of voice votes. I ask you to please be attentive. First bill is LB861. Mr. Clerk. [LB861] CLERK: Mr. President, with respect to LB861, Senator Wishart, I have Enrollment and Review amendments first of all. (ER121, Legislative Journal page 907.) [LB861] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Senator Wishart for a motion. [LB861] 1 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate April 09, 2018 SENATOR WISHART: Thank you, Mr. President. I move the adoption of the E&R amendments to LB861. [LB861] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Members, you've heard the motion to adopt the E&R amendments. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. The E&R amendments are adopted. Mr. Clerk. [LB861] CLERK: Mr. President, Senator Harr had two amendments, both to be withdrawn. Senator Watermeier would move to amend with AM2854. (Legislative Journal page 1454.) [LB861] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Senator Watermeier, you're recognized to open on AM2854. [LB861] SENATOR WATERMEIER: Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning, Nebraskans. After LB861 advanced from Select File, I met with the Risk Management in the DAS Office regarding the committee amendments. AM2854 is the result of our meeting. The amendment strikes the original sections and all amendments thereafter that. However, it only makes technical changes to the original legislation to make the claims process more workable. The amendment clarifies that Risk Management can investigate a claim on behalf of the Legislature and make a recommendation for that payment. It does also strike the Harr amendment, which is LB883, a bill still in Judiciary Committee that Senator Harr has indicated he would pull all of his amendments to this bill. As you recall, LB861 would require the state to pay a county's prosecution cost arising from a single Correctional institution incident if it exceeds the threshold amount for such county. The threshold amount is the amount of property tax revenue raised by a county from a levy of 2.5 cents per $100 of taxable valuation. The state would only pay the prosecution costs that are in excess of the threshold amount. I look at LB861 as a catastrophic insurance policy. It will only kick in when the prosecution costs become an extreme hardship for county residents. It may never kick in, and I hope that it is never needed. I urge your favorable vote on AM2854 and the advancement of LB861. Thank you, Mr. President. [LB861 LB883] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Watermeier. Is there any discussion of AM2854? Seeing no discussion, Senator Watermeier waives close. The question before the body is the adoption of AM2854 to LB861. Those in favor vote aye; those opposed vote nay. Have all voted who care to? Record please. [LB861] CLERK: 36 ayes, 0 nays, Mr. President, on the adoption of Senator Watermeier's amendment. [LB861] PRESIDENT FOLEY: AM2854 is adopted. Mr. Clerk. [LB861] 2 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate April 09, 2018 CLERK: Mr. President, I have nothing further pending on the bill. [LB861] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Senator Wishart for a motion. [LB861] SENATOR WISHART: Mr. President, I move to advance LB861 to E&R for engrossing. [LB861] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Members, you heard the motion to advance the bill. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. LB861 advances. Moving to LB1081. [LB861 LB1081] CLERK: LB1081. I have E&R amendments, first of all, Senator. (ER143, Legislative Journal page 1144.) [LB1081] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Senator Wishart. [LB1081] SENATOR WISHART: Mr. President, I move the adoption of the E&R amendments to LB1081. [LB1081] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Members, you've heard the motion to adopt the E&R amendments. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. The E&R amendments are adopted. Mr. Clerk. [LB1081] CLERK: Senator Linehan will move to amend with AM2823. (Legislative Journal page 1420.) [LB1081] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Senator Linehan, you're recognized to open on AM2823. [LB1081] SENATOR LINEHAN: Good morning, Mr. President. Good morning, colleagues. AM2823 just works to reduce the fiscal note. I worked with the Department of Ed and Senator Groene and since this will be the first couple of years the schools are doing that, we took the reporting part...the Department of Ed out, which reduced the fiscal note $60,000 a year. So I'd appreciate your support on AM2823. [LB1081] PRESIDENT FOLEY: I'm sorry, Senator Linehan. Had you concluded your remarks? [LB1081] SENATOR LINEHAN: Yes. [LB1081] 3 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate April 09, 2018 PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Linehan. Discussion on AM2823? Senator Groene. [LB1081] SENATOR GROENE: Thank you, Mr. President. Worked with Senator Linehan, local schools, and the understanding was there wouldn't be a fiscal note, but there was. The Department of Ed didn't like it because it gave them a lot of dictates. But Senator Linehan is going to accomplish something that should have been done in our basic education in our statutes to emphasize to our schools as far back as cavemen writing on walls and taught their children to communicate that the number one duty of our schools is to teach our children to communicate, to read, to have a good vocabulary and to read and write. This will be the first time in our statutes, thanks to Senator Linehan and all the work she did with other senators and the education people and time she spent on the road talking to public schools that this will be emphasized in our statutes. But we took the mandates out. There is still the mandate they will have to test to identify these children and, most importantly, to communicate to the parents. That is in there, but the mandates of how they should address it are out of it. They are now recommendations with the use of "may." It is going to be local control, local issue. It will not be "oversaw" by the Department of Education. This is the way it should be done. I applaud Senator Linehan on her work and to working with others. This amendment is good. It takes the pressure off small schools to come up with programs and staffing that they don't have and the dictates of how a teacher should do it. Well, trust the teachers there. If we give them direction, they will do it the right way and the administrators will do it the right way. So I am in full support of AM2823 for everything I just espoused. It's in the right direction. An employee cannot do the right thing unless we give them direction and our public schools employees need that direction and this will do it without the burdensome "shalls" on a lot of...on a big part of it. So thank you. I support AM2823 amended into LB1081. I do not support anybody else's amendments that are coming forward if they try, because we need to keep this clean. Thank you. [LB1081] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Thank you, Senator Groene. Senator Harr. [LB1081] SENATOR HARR: Senator Groene, will you yield to a question? [LB1081] PRESIDENT FOLEY: Senator Groene, would you yield, please? [LB1081] SENATOR GROENE: Yes. [LB1081] SENATOR HARR: What's your definition of clean? [LB1081] SENATOR GROENE: I took a shower this morning. [LB1081] 4 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Floor Debate April 09, 2018 SENATOR HARR: What's that? [LB1081] SENATOR GROENE: I took a shower this morning. [LB1081] SENATOR HARR: I didn't hear you. [LB1081] SENATOR GROENE: I took a shower this morning. [LB1081] SENATOR HARR: Okay. Thank you. [LB1081] SENATOR GROENE: You did not put the context of the word clean. [LB1081] SENATOR HARR: All right. Thank you. Nor did you. That's my point. Folks, we're here on a bill that we heard last year in committee. Senator Linehan then pulled it on the floor, a similar bill. She then at the eleventh hour, 20 minutes before we heard it, on a late night, gave me an amendment and said, hey, it's a good thing. Told me she had worked with the Commissioner of Education. Told me a deal had been worked out. It was after hours. I couldn't get a hold of the Commissioner of Education nor anyone from the Department of Education.