As the Legislative session reaches its midway point, State Senators and the Standing Committees all have an opportunity to designate their priority bills. Those bills identified as priorities are more likely to make it to the full legislature for debate, and, with any luck, final passage.
Most years, we’re lucky to have a handful of priority bills on children’s issues. This year, there are 14 bills that “made the cut” that Voices for Children has been actively working on – either working to introduce the bill or providing testimony and analysis to senators. Below are the 14 priority bills with links to our testimony.
LB 22 – Parenting Act changes (Karpisek)
LB 44 – Juvenile Life Without Possibility of Parole (Judiciary Committee)
LB 216 – Foster Care to 21 (HHS Committee)
LB 265 – Kinship Care (Speaker)
LB 296 – Extending 529 college savings accounts (Brasch)
LB 464 – Making juvenile court the court of origin for youth (Ashford)
LB 439 – Tobacco Tax (Gloor)
LB 505 – Autism insurance (Coash)
LB 507 – Quality Rating System for early childhood care (Bolz)
LB 530 – Increase foster care reimbursement rates (Dubas)
LB 556 – Behavioral health telehealth services for youth (McGill)
LB 561 – Juvenile Justice System Reform Package (Judiciary Committee)
LB 577 – Medicaid Extension (Campbell)
LB 613 – Create a tax modernization commission (McCoy)
LB 625 – Restore child care subsidy eligibility to 185% of poverty level (Conrad)
It’s important to note that with exactly half of the Legislative Session remaining, anything can and will happen. In a few short months, we hope to report that Senators acted on their priorities and many of the policies that help kids and families are enacted.
Which priority bills do you think are most important for kids?
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