By Senator Tom Brewer
My eighth and final regular session as a Nebraska state senator is coming to a close. During these final days, a lot of sentimental words have been exchanged, recognizing the friendships that have developed between many senators as we served together in the Unicameral. As special as those friendships may be, they are not the reason I ran for the Legislature in 2016 or ran for reelection in 2020. I ran because I wanted to serve Nebraskans and promote the conservative values that the residents of District 43 believe in.
I am pleased to report that in these closing days of the 2024 session, my office has been able to get a number of our most important bills across the goal line and over to Governor Jim Pillen’s desk for a signature. On the 59th day of the session alone, the Legislature passed measures containing eight bills that I introduced.
We passed LB 287 with changes to our Open Meetings Act (LB 513) and two years’ worth of election law updates (LB 514 from 2023 and LB 1152 from this year), including important improvements to our new voter ID law now being used to protect our 2024 elections. After more than a year of negotiations, we passed LB 399 to require more public accountability for wind and solar electrical generation projects. Senator Eliot Bostar’s LB 1300 includes my LB 867, which would provide security grants to nonprofit organizations whose mission makes them vulnerable to ideologically motivated attacks.
Last year, after passing constitutional carry and state firearms preemption, I promised to come back in my final session and introduce a bill to better secure our schools. I am very proud that we got that done this year. Provisions of my LB 1339 were included in an Education Committee priority package, LB 1329. Those changes will allow off-duty and qualified retired law enforcement officers to carry firearms on school premises and at school-sponsored events statewide. They will also allow about eighty percent of our public school systems to adopt a policy for armed security by faculty, staff, or contract security. Private schools across the state will also be able to develop their own policies to secure their facilities and protect their students.
Finally, I always feel a sense of loyalty to our military service members and our veterans. I am proud that we were able to send the governor a bill, LB 1394, that would exempt National Guard pay from state income tax. We also passed LB 253, to create a veterans’ problem-solving court that will help some of our returning service members cope with the tougher consequences of their military service.
The legislative process is a long one. It has lots of challenges and obstacles that you have to overcome in order to make good law. But making the laws of Nebraska reflect the values of its people is an objective that is worth the fight. I am honored that the good people of the 43rd District saw fit to assign that mission to me these last eight years.
Please contact my office with any comments, questions, or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.