The Nebraska legislative session only has about a quarter left and the state budget will soon be up for debate.

We are happy to report the full $15 million in biomedical research funding has been included in the budget by the Appropriations Committee. We encourage you to send committee members an email of appreciation. As the budget bill gets discussed and voted on by the full legislature, we will keep an eye on any attempts to change research funding during debate and will let you know if we need you to reach out to your state senator.

Nebraska Cures continues to monitor federal funding for science and research as well. The biggest concern shared with us by Research!America are potentially massive cuts to the NIH and HHS in the next budget cycle. We will share an update when more information is available.

Here is an update on where all the bills we’ve been tracking stand.

LB 22 (Dungan) – Support – Filing a state amendment to expand nurse home visiting service – hearing completed – Passed and signed by the Governor.

LB 55 (Dorn) – Support – Addresses the disparity between Medicare and Medicaid rates for mental health services – Amended into the budget.

LB 104 (Raybould) – Support – Adopt the Family Home Visitation Act – Amended into LD 22 and passed into law. See our letter of support here.

LB 203 (Kauth) – Oppose – Change powers and duties of health directors in certain local public health departments – Advanced our of committee onto General File. See our letter of opposition here.

LB 213 (Holdcroft) – Oppose – Require the State Board of Education to adopt academic content standards on human embryology under the science education standards. Advanced our of committee onto General File. Read our letter of opposition here.

LB 253 (Bostar) – Support – Provide for insurance and medicaid coverage of biomarker testing. Read our letter of support here. LB 253 advanced out of committee.

LB 255 (Quick) – Support – Provide for use of the Opioid Treatment Infrastructure Cash Fund for problem solving courts – Read our letter here.

LB 310 (Hansen) – Oppose – Exemption for newborn screenings – Read our letter of opposition here.

LB 380 (Fredrickson) – Support – Establish requirements for Department of Health and Human Services’ contractors providing medical assistance services. Advanced to Select File. Read our letter here.

LB 381 (Fredrickson) – Support – Change requirements relating to program integrity audits under the Medical Assistance Act. Amended into LB 380. Read our letter here.

LB 551 (Lippencott) – Oppose – Prohibit tenure at public institutions. Read our letter here.

LB 552 (Lippencott) – Oppose – Prohibit public institutions from having certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programing. Read our letter here.

LB 595 (Prokop) – Support – Create the Research Excellence Cash Fund. Advanced out of committee onto General File. Read our letter here.

LB 701 (McKinney) – Support – Provide for reimbursement of doula services by the Department of Health and Human Services

Appropriations Committee Members

Sen. Robert Clements, Chairperson – rclements@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Christy Armendariz, Vice Chairperson – carmendariz@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh – mcavanaugh@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Myron Dorn – mdorn@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Robert Dover – rdover@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Loren Lippincott – llippincott@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Jason Prokop – jprokop@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Ashlei Spivey – aspivey@leg.ne.gov

Sen. Paul Strommen – pstrommen@leg.ne.gov