Legislative Session Approaching Mid-Point

As the 2016 Legislative Session approaches its mid-point, the processing of bills continues to move slowly. In what is becoming the norm, upon completion of a filibuster on a vehicular pursuit bill (Legislative Bill 188), the Legislature moved on to a bill relating to regulation of “fantasy football” (Legislative Bill 970), with another filibuster and six hours of General File debate anticipated.  The deadline for designating individual and committee priority bills is February 19, with the Speaker of the Legislature required to designate his 25 “speaker priority” bills by February 22.  

NFIB presented testimony on a series of bills before various committees during the past week, including the following: 

Legislative Bill 817 – Direct Primary Care Agreements: LB 817, introduced by Sen. Merv Riepe (Ralston), allows small businesses to contract with a primary care physician and pay a manageable monthly fee to provide primary care services to employees. These contracts would be supplemented with a “wrap around” insurance policy that provides catastrophic coverage for employees who have major medical emergencies.  The legislation should result in cost savings for small business that would otherwise go toward more costly traditional health insurance policies. (NFIB Position – Support) 

Legislative Bill 1001 – Workers Compensation/Scheduled Member Injuries: Introduced by Sen. Laura Ebke (Crete), LB 1001 would provide definitions for loss or loss of use (permanent loss of physical function) and “member” (an arm, leg, ear, eye, or a nose) for purposes of loss of earning capacity determination when there is a loss or loss of use of more than one member or parts of more than one member.  

Under current law, an employee may receive benefits based on loss of earning capacity if injuries resulting from the same accident or illness involve the loss or loss of use of more than one member or parts of more than one member. Recent court rulings have expanded the cases for which loss of earning capacity is utilized by not requiring permanent restrictions to apply to both scheduled member injuries and by allowing for recovery of loss of earning capacity benefits for injuries to multiple parts of a single scheduled member. 

By defining loss or loss of use to mean permanent loss of physical function, LB 1001 will clarify that permanent restrictions to each scheduled member must exist in order for the loss of earning capacity determination to apply.  In addition, LB 1001 will also require injuries to two separate and distinct scheduled members for the loss of earning capacity determination to apply, by defining, in part, that a member means an arm or a leg. (NFIB Position – Support)

Legislative Bill 1005 – Workers Compensation/Evidenced-Based Drug Formulary: LB 1005, introduced by Sen. Burke Harr (Omaha), would establish an evidence-based drug formulary consisting of Schedule II, III, IV and V prescription drugs in connection with workers compensation claims with a date of injury on or after January 1, 2017. (NFIB Position – Support)

Legislative Bill 743 – Workers Compensation Act – Shoulder Injuries: Introduced by Sen. Matt Hansen (Lincoln), the measure would provide that loss of an arm does not include injuries to the shoulder regardless of the location of residual impairment, with injuries to the shoulder to be compensated pursuant to the total and partial disability provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act, rather than as a scheduled member injury. (NFIB Position – Oppose)

NFIB will present testimony before the Revenue Committee on Wednesday, February 17 on the following measure: 

Legislative Bill 936 – Inheritance Tax: Introduced by Senator Ebke, LB 936 would increase the exemption for all estate beneficiaries to $100,000 and decrease the tax rate to 1 percent for all estate beneficiaries. (NFIB Position – Support)

The Revenue Committee has voted to indefinitely postpone Legislative Bill 671, a measure introduced by Sen. Bob Krist (Omaha), that would have repealed the Build Nebraska Act. The Build Nebraska Act was enacted in 2011 to dedicate a quarter cent of the state’s 5.5 percent sales tax to roads funding. (NFIB Position – Oppose)

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NFIB Will Oppose Paid Family and Medical Leave Bill—January 29 Report From the Capitol 

(Tile photo: Sen. Merv Riepe, courtesy of the Nebraska Unicameral Information Office)