LB191 LB191
2023 2023
LEGISLATURE OF NEBRASKA
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH LEGISLATURE
FIRST SESSION
LEGISLATIVE BILL 191
FINAL READING
Introduced by Halloran, 33.
Read first time January 09, 2023
Committee: Business and Labor
1 A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to labor; to amend sections 48-145, 48-163,
2 48-164, 48-174, 48-622.02, 48-649.03, 48-650, 48-652, 48-2103,
3 48-2107, and 49-506, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, and
4 sections 48-101.01, 71-7104, 81-1228, 81-1229, and 81-1231, Revised
5 Statutes Cumulative Supplement, 2022; to adopt the Critical
6 Infrastructure Utility Worker Protection Act; to provide for
7 reimbursement for mental health and resilience training for first
8 responders; to change provisions of the Nebraska Workers'
9 Compensation Act relating to the fund credited with payments from
10 self-insurers, notices for rules and regulations, case progression
11 requirements, and summonses; to change permitted uses of the
12 Nebraska Training and Support Cash Fund; to change provisions of the
13 Employment Security Law regarding voluntary contributions and
14 notices of determination; to eliminate a definition and certain fees
15 under the Contractor Registration Act; to change requirements
16 relating to distribution of session laws and legislative journals;
17 to change provisions and definitions of the Rural Workforce Housing
18 Investment Act relating to grants; to harmonize provisions; to
19 provide operative dates; to provide severability; to repeal the
20 original sections; and to declare an emergency.
21 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska,
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1 Section 1. Sections 1 to 5 of this act shall be known and may be
2 cited as the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker Protection Act.
3 Sec. 2. For purposes of the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker
4 Protection Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
5 (1) Civil defense emergency has the same meaning as in section
6 81-829.39;
7 (2) Critical infrastructure utility worker means an essential
8 critical infrastructure worker identified in the Guidance on the
9 Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce, Version 4.1, as released on
10 August 5, 2021, by the United States Department of Homeland Security
11 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency;
12 (3) Disaster has the same meaning as in section 81-829.39;
13 (4) Emergency has the same meaning as in section 81-829.39;
14 (5) Priority access means access at least equal to that provided to
15 hospital and medical personnel, law enforcement personnel, or other
16 emergency responders;
17 (6) Utility means any legal entity, including a political
18 subdivision, that owns or operates a utility system, or any part thereof,
19 in this state; and
20 (7) Utility system means the physical and cyber assets and
21 infrastructure used in providing utility services to wholesale or retail
22 customers. Utility system includes electrical, gas, water, steam, sewage,
23 and telecommunications services.
24 Sec. 3. The purposes of the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker
25 Protection Act are to:
26 (1) Provide for protection of critical infrastructure utility
27 workers during any civil defense emergency, disaster, or emergency;
28 (2) Provide priority access to personal protective equipment;
29 medical screening, testing, and preventative health services; medical
30 treatment; and the administration of vaccines for critical infrastructure
31 utility workers in the event of an emergency involving a severe threat to
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1 human health; and
2 (3) Authorize federal and state financial aid for critical
3 infrastructure utility workers during any civil defense emergency,
4 disaster, or emergency involving a severe threat to human health.
5 Sec. 4. Utilities shall maintain a list of critical infrastructure
6 utility workers by position description without listing individual names.
7 The list shall not be deemed a public record subject to disclosure
8 pursuant to sections 84-712 to 84-712.09, but shall be made available to
9 the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency upon request. The list shall be
10 kept confidential by the agency.
11 Sec. 5. In the event of any civil defense emergency, disaster, or
12 emergency involving a severe threat to human health, the Governor shall:
13 (1) Ensure that critical infrastructure utility workers are provided
14 priority access to personal protective equipment, medical screening,
15 testing, preventive health services, medical treatment, and the
16 administration of vaccines approved by the federal Food and Drug
17 Administration; and
18 (2) Take all necessary measures to provide available federal funding
19 for the adequate protection and care of critical infrastructure utility
20 workers in accordance with federal law and regulations regarding
21 eligibility for such funding.
22 Sec. 6. Section 48-101.01, Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement,
23 2022, is amended to read:
24 48-101.01 (1) The Legislature finds and declares:
25 (a) The occupations of first responders are recognized as stressful
26 occupations. Only our nation's combat soldiers endure more stress.
27 Similar to military personnel, first responders face unique and uniquely
28 dangerous risks in their sworn mission to keep the public safe. They rely
29 on each other for survival to protect the communities they serve;
30 (b) On any given day, first responders can be called on to make life
31 and death decisions, witness a young child dying with the child's grief-
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1 stricken family, make a decision that will affect a community member for
2 the rest of such person's life, or be exposed to a myriad of communicable
3 diseases and known carcinogens;
4 (c) On any given day, first responders protect high-risk individuals
5 from themselves and protect the community from such individuals;
6 (d) First responders are constantly at significant risk of bodily
7 harm or physical assault while they perform their duties;
8 (e) Constant, cumulative exposure to horrific events make first
9 responders uniquely susceptible to the emotional and behavioral impacts
10 of job-related stressors;
11 (f) Trauma-related injuries can become overwhelming and manifest in
12 post-traumatic stress, which may result in substance use disorders and
13 even, tragically, suicide; and
14 (g) It is imperative for society to recognize occupational injuries
15 related to post-traumatic stress and to promptly seek diagnosis and
16 treatment without stigma. This includes recognizing that mental injury
17 and mental illness as a result of trauma is not disordered, but is a
18 normal and natural human response to trauma, the negative effects of
19 which can be ameliorated through diagnosis and effective treatment.
20 (2) Personal injury includes mental injuries and mental illness
21 unaccompanied by physical injury for an employee who is a first
22 responder, frontline state employee, or county correctional officer if
23 such employee:
24 (a) Establishes that the employee's employment conditions causing
25 the mental injury or mental illness were extraordinary and unusual in
26 comparison to the normal conditions of the particular employment; and
27 (b) Establishes, through a mental health professional, the medical
28 causation between the mental injury or mental illness and the employment
29 conditions by medical evidence.
30 (3) The employee bears the burden of establishing the matters
31 described in subsection (2) of this section by a preponderance of the
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1 evidence.
2 (4) Until January 1, 2028, a first responder may establish prima
3 facie evidence of a personal injury that is a mental injury or mental
4 illness if the first responder:
5 (a) Presents evidence that the first responder underwent a mental
6 health examination by a mental health professional upon entry into such
7 service or subsequent to such entry and before the onset of the mental
8 injury or mental illness and such examination did not reveal the mental
9 injury or mental illness for which the first responder seeks
10 compensation;
11 (b) Presents testimony or an affidavit from a mental health
12 professional stating the first responder suffers from a mental injury or
13 mental illness caused by one or more events or series of events which
14 cumulatively produced the mental injury or mental illness which brought
15 about the need for medical attention and the interruption of employment;
16 (c) Presents evidence that such events or series of events arose out
17 of and in the course of the first responder's employment; and
18 (d) Presents evidence that, prior to the employment conditions which
19 caused the mental injury or mental illness, the first responder had
20 participated in resilience training and updated the training at least
21 annually thereafter.
22 (5) For purposes of this section, mental injuries and mental illness
23 arising out of and in the course of employment unaccompanied by physical
24 injury are not considered compensable if they result from any event or
25 series of events which are incidental to normal employer and employee
26 relations, including, but not limited to, personnel actions by the
27 employer such as disciplinary actions, work evaluations, transfers,
28 promotions, demotions, salary reviews, or terminations.
29 (6)(a) The Department of Health and Human Services shall provide
30 reimbursement reimburse a first responder for the cost of any of the
31 following to the extent not reimbursed by the first responder's employer:
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1 A mental health examination by a mental health professional upon entry
2 into such service or subsequent to such entry and before the onset of a
3 mental injury or mental illness for which compensation is sought; initial
4 resilience training; and annual resilience training not reimbursed by the
5 first responder's employer. The department shall pay reimbursement at a
6 rate determined by the Critical Incident Stress Management Program under
7 section 71-7104. Reimbursement for resilience training shall be subject
8 to the annual limit set by such program under section 71-7104.
9 (b) To obtain reimbursement under this subsection, a first responder
10 shall submit an application to the Department of Health and Human
11 Services on a form and in a manner prescribed by the department.
12 (7) The Department of Health and Human Services shall maintain and
13 annually update records of first responders who have completed annual
14 resilience training.
15 (8) For purposes of this section:
16 (a) County correctional officer means a correctional officer
17 employed by a high-population county whose:
18 (i) Position obligates such employee to maintain order and custody
19 of inmates in a county jail; and
20 (ii) Duties involve regular and direct interaction with high-risk
21 individuals;
22 (b) Custody means:
23 (i) Under the charge or control of a state institution or state
24 agency and includes time spent outside of the state institution or state
25 agency; or
26 (ii) In the custody of a county jail in a high-population county or
27 in the process of being placed in the custody of a county jail in a high-
28 population county;
29 (c) First responder means a sheriff, a deputy sheriff, a police
30 officer, an officer of the Nebraska State Patrol, a volunteer or paid
31 firefighter, or a volunteer or paid individual licensed under a licensure
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1 classification in subdivision (1) of section 38-1217 who provides medical
2 care in order to prevent loss of life or aggravation of physiological or
3 psychological illness or injury;
4 (d) Frontline state employee means an employee of the Department of
5 Correctional Services or the Department of Health and Human Services
6 whose duties involve regular and direct interaction with high-risk
7 individuals;
8 (e) High-population county means a county with more than three
9 hundred thousand inhabitants as determined by the most recent federal
10 decennial census or the most recent revised certified count by the United
11 States Bureau of the Census;
12 (f) High-risk individual means an individual in custody for whom
13 violent or physically intimidating behavior is common, including, but not
14 limited to, a committed offender as defined in section 83-170, a patient
15 at a regional center as defined in section 71-911, a juvenile committed
16 to a youth rehabilitation and treatment center, and a person in the
17 custody of a county jail in a high-population county or in the process of
18 being placed in the custody of a county jail in a high-population county;
19 (g) Mental health professional means:
20 (i) A practicing physician licensed to practice medicine in this
21 state under the Medicine and Surgery Practice Act;
22 (ii) A practicing psychologist licensed to engage in the practice of
23 psychology in this state as provided in section 38-3111 or as provided in
24 similar provisions of the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact;
25 (iii) A person licensed as an independent mental health practitioner
26 under the Mental Health Practice Act; or
27 (iv) A professional counselor who holds a privilege to practice in
28 Nebraska as a professional counselor under the Licensed Professional
29 Counselors Interstate Compact; and
30 (h) Resilience training means training that meets the guidelines
31 established by the Critical Incident Stress Management Program under
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1 section 71-7104 and that teaches how to adapt to, manage, and recover
2 from adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of
3 stress.
4 (9) All other provisions of the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act
5 apply to this section.
6 Sec. 7. Section 48-145, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, is
7 amended to read:
8 48-145 To secure the payment of compensation under the Nebraska
9 Workers' Compensation Act:
10 (1) Every employer in the occupations described in section 48-106,
11 except the State of Nebraska and any governmental agency created by the
12 state, shall either (a) insure and keep insured its liability under such
13 act in some corporation, association, or organization authorized and
14 licensed to transact the business of workers' compensation insurance in
15 this state, (b) in the case of an employer who is a lessor of one or more
16 commercial vehicles leased to a self-insured motor carrier, be a party to
17 an effective agreement with the self-insured motor ca