It feels a bit like déjà vu as we are once again fighting to save biomedical research funding in the Nebraska Legislature.

This time, the governor has proposed cutting all $15 million in biomedical research dollars in addition to cutting another $2.7 million specifically used for pediatric cancer research.

We’ve been organizing meetings with key state senators to meet directly with researchers to learn how valuable these dollars are both for the pursuit of better health care and for the recruitment of the best scientists into our state. The money is also used to draw down additional federal grants, often bringing in $10 for every $1 dollar invested by the state.

We need your help reaching out to members of the Appropriations Committee to tell them to restore this cut. The hearing is on February 9. You can find the list of committee members here and on our Research HUB.

In addition to the budget, Nebraska Cures is following a number of other health-related bills. You will also notice a number of mental health bills on our list this year stemming from our work as partners in the new Nebraska Behavioral Health Coalition. These include several bills relating to artificial intelligence and its relation to youth mental health.

As we draft position letters on some of these bills, we will post them on our website www.nebraskacures.com. We encourage you to reach out to your state senator to express your support or opposition. You can find your senator here.

To learn more about all of these issues, join us over lunch on Tuesday, February 3, for our annual Legislative Priorities Webinar. Register here.

 

Full Nebraska Cures Legislative Agenda

For those with public hearing dates set, we’ve including the date and link to submit your support or opposition. Comments must be submitted by 8 a.m. the morning of the hearing.

LB 755, LB 804, LB 816 – Support – All three bills have the goals of expanding access to peer support for first responders by providing confidentiality. – Hearing was January 22

LB 724 (Quick) – Support – Require the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a cost study of behavioral health care rates – Hearing is February 4

LB 773 (Dungan) – Support – Eliminate a sunset date and change provisions of the Nebraska Prenatal Plus Program – Hearing February 5

LB 860 (Bostar) – Monitor – Require the Department of Health and Human Services to create a program to provide behavioral health care services to individuals under twenty-one years of age – Hearing January 30

LB 912 (Hardin) – Support – Adopt the Community Health Worker Training Endorsement Act – Hearing January 30

LB 939 (Murman) – Monitor – Seeks to create protections for minors interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots with humanlike features – Hearing February 24

LB 1025 (Bosn) – Monitor – Creates a tax on certain social media platform businesses and created a youth mental health fund.

LB 1229 (Strommen ) – Monitor – Creates the Rural Health Transformation Fund – Hearing February 9

These are bills introduced last year that are still active

LB 203 (Kauth) – Oppose – Change powers and duties of health directors in certain local public health departments – Select File

LB 213 (Holdcroft) – Oppose – Require the State Board of Education to adopt academic content standards on human embryology under the science education standards – General File

LB 255 (Quick) – Support – Provide for use of the Opioid Treatment Infrastructure Cash Fund for problem solving courts – In Committee

LB 310 (Hansen) – Oppose – Exemption for newborn screenings – In Committee

LB 551 (Lippencott) – Oppose – Prohibit tenure at public institutions – In Committee

LB 552 (Lippencott) – Oppose – Prohibit public institutions from having certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programing – In Committee

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