LB191 LB191
2023 2023
LEGISLATIVE BILL 191
Approved by the Governor May 26, 2023
Introduced by Halloran, 33.
A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to labor; to amend sections 48-145, 48-163, 48-164,
48-174, 48-622.02, 48-649.03, 48-650, 48-652, 48-2103, 48-2107, and
49-506, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, and sections 48-101.01,
71-7104, 81-1228, 81-1229, and 81-1231, Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement, 2022; to adopt the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker Protection Act; to provide for reimbursement for mental health and resilience training for first responders; to change provisions of the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act relating to the fund credited with payments from self-insurers, notices for rules and regulations, case progression requirements, and summonses; to change permitted uses of the Nebraska Training and Support Cash Fund; to change provisions of the Employment Security Law regarding voluntary contributions and notices of
determination; to eliminate a definition and certain fees under the Contractor Registration Act; to change requirements relating to
distribution of session laws and legislative journals; to change provisions and definitions of the Rural Workforce Housing Investment Act relating to grants; to harmonize provisions; to provide operative dates;
to provide severability; to repeal the original sections; and to declare an emergency.
Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska,
Section 1. Sections 1 to 5 of this act shall be known and may be cited as
the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker Protection Act.
Sec. 2. For purposes of the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker Protection Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) Civil defense emergency has the same meaning as in section 81-829.39;
(2) Critical infrastructure utility worker means an essential critical infrastructure worker identified in the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce, Version 4.1, as released on August 5, 2021, by the United States Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency;
(3) Disaster has the same meaning as in section 81-829.39;
(4) Emergency has the same meaning as in section 81-829.39;
(5) Priority access means access at least equal to that provided to
hospital and medical personnel, law enforcement personnel, or other emergency responders;
(6) Utility means any legal entity, including a political subdivision,
that owns or operates a utility system, or any part thereof, in this state; and
(7) Utility system means the physical and cyber assets and infrastructure used in providing utility services to wholesale or retail customers. Utility system includes electrical, gas, water, steam, sewage, and telecommunications services.
Sec. 3. The purposes of the Critical Infrastructure Utility Worker Protection Act are to:
(1) Provide for protection of critical infrastructure utility workers during any civil defense emergency, disaster, or emergency;
(2) Provide priority access to personal protective equipment; medical screening, testing, and preventative health services; medical treatment; and the administration of vaccines for critical infrastructure utility workers in
the event of an emergency involving a severe threat to human health; and
(3) Authorize federal and state financial aid for critical infrastructure utility workers during any civil defense emergency, disaster, or emergency involving a severe threat to human health.
Sec. 4. Utilities shall maintain a list of critical infrastructure utility workers by position description without listing individual names. The list shall not be deemed a public record subject to disclosure pursuant to
sections 84-712 to 84-712.09, but shall be made available to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency upon request. The list shall be kept confidential by the agency.
Sec. 5. In the event of any civil defense emergency, disaster, or emergency involving a severe threat to human health, the Governor shall:
(1) Ensure that critical infrastructure utility workers are provided priority access to personal protective equipment, medical screening, testing,
preventive health services, medical treatment, and the administration of
vaccines approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration; and
(2) Take all necessary measures to provide available federal funding for the adequate protection and care of critical infrastructure utility workers in
accordance with federal law and regulations regarding eligibility for such funding.
Sec. 6. Section 48-101.01, Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement, 2022,
is amended to read:
48-101.01 (1) The Legislature finds and declares:
(a) The occupations of first responders are recognized as stressful
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occupations. Only our nation's combat soldiers endure more stress. Similar to
military personnel, first responders face unique and uniquely dangerous risks in their sworn mission to keep the public safe. They rely on each other for survival to protect the communities they serve;
(b) On any given day, first responders can be called on to make life and death decisions, witness a young child dying with the child's grief-stricken family, make a decision that will affect a community member for the rest of
such person's life, or be exposed to a myriad of communicable diseases and known carcinogens;
(c) On any given day, first responders protect high-risk individuals from themselves and protect the community from such individuals;
(d) First responders are constantly at significant risk of bodily harm or
physical assault while they perform their duties;
(e) Constant, cumulative exposure to horrific events make first responders uniquely susceptible to the emotional and behavioral impacts of job-related stressors;
(f) Trauma-related injuries can become overwhelming and manifest in post-
traumatic stress, which may result in substance use disorders and even,
tragically, suicide; and
(g) It is imperative for society to recognize occupational injuries related to post-traumatic stress and to promptly seek diagnosis and treatment without stigma. This includes recognizing that mental injury and mental illness as a result of trauma is not disordered, but is a normal and natural human response to trauma, the negative effects of which can be ameliorated through diagnosis and effective treatment.
(2) Personal injury includes mental injuries and mental illness unaccompanied by physical injury for an employee who is a first responder,
frontline state employee, or county correctional officer if such employee:
(a) Establishes that the employee's employment conditions causing the mental injury or mental illness were extraordinary and unusual in comparison to
the normal conditions of the particular employment; and
(b) Establishes, through a mental health professional, the medical causation between the mental injury or mental illness and the employment conditions by medical evidence.
(3) The employee bears the burden of establishing the matters described in
subsection (2) of this section by a preponderance of the evidence.
(4) Until January 1, 2028, a first responder may establish prima facie evidence of a personal injury that is a mental injury or mental illness if the first responder:
(a) Presents evidence that the first responder underwent a mental health examination by a mental health professional upon entry into such service or
subsequent to such entry and before the onset of the mental injury or mental illness and such examination did not reveal the mental injury or mental illness for which the first responder seeks compensation;
(b) Presents testimony or an affidavit from a mental health professional stating the first responder suffers from a mental injury or mental illness caused by one or more events or series of events which cumulatively produced the mental injury or mental illness which brought about the need for medical attention and the interruption of employment;
(c) Presents evidence that such events or series of events arose out of
and in the course of the first responder's employment; and
(d) Presents evidence that, prior to the employment conditions which caused the mental injury or mental illness, the first responder had participated in resilience training and updated the training at least annually thereafter.
(5) For purposes of this section, mental injuries and mental illness arising out of and in the course of employment unaccompanied by physical injury are not considered compensable if they result from any event or series of
events which are incidental to normal employer and employee relations,
including, but not limited to, personnel actions by the employer such as
disciplinary actions, work evaluations, transfers, promotions, demotions,
salary reviews, or terminations.
(6)(a) The Department of Health and Human Services shall provide reimbursement reimburse a first responder for the cost of any of the following to the extent not reimbursed by the first responder's employer: A mental health examination by a mental health professional upon entry into such service or
subsequent to such entry and before the onset of a mental injury or mental illness for which compensation is sought; initial resilience training; and annual resilience training not reimbursed by the first responder's employer.
The department shall pay reimbursement at a rate determined by the Critical Incident Stress Management Program under section 71-7104. Reimbursement for resilience training shall be subject to the annual limit set by such program under section 71-7104.
(b) To obtain reimbursement under this subsection, a first responder shall submit an application to the Department of Health and Human Services on a form and in a manner prescribed by the department.
(7) The Department of Health and Human Services shall maintain and annually update records of first responders who have completed annual resilience training.
(8) For purposes of this section:
(a) County correctional officer means a correctional officer employed by a high-population county whose:
(i) Position obligates such employee to maintain order and custody of
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inmates in a county jail; and
(ii) Duties involve regular and direct interaction with high-risk individuals;
(b) Custody means:
(i) Under the charge or control of a state institution or state agency and includes time spent outside of the state institution or state agency; or
(ii) In the custody of a county jail in a high-population county or in the process of being placed in the custody of a county jail in a high-population county;
(c) First responder means a sheriff, a deputy sheriff, a police officer,
an officer of the Nebraska State Patrol, a volunteer or paid firefighter, or a volunteer or paid individual licensed under a licensure classification in
subdivision (1) of section 38-1217 who provides medical care in order to
prevent loss of life or aggravation of physiological or psychological illness or injury;
(d) Frontline state employee means an employee of the Department of
Correctional Services or the Department of Health and Human Services whose duties involve regular and direct interaction with high-risk individuals;
(e) High-population county means a county with more than three hundred thousand inhabitants as determined by the most recent federal decennial census or the most recent revised certified count by the United States Bureau of the Census;
(f) High-risk individual means an individual in custody for whom violent or physically intimidating behavior is common, including, but not limited to, a committed offender as defined in section 83-170, a patient at a regional center as defined in section 71-911, a juvenile committed to a youth rehabilitation and treatment center, and a person in the custody of a county jail in a high-
population county or in the process of being placed in the custody of a county jail in a high-population county;
(g) Mental health professional means:
(i) A practicing physician licensed to practice medicine in this state under the Medicine and Surgery Practice Act;
(ii) A practicing psychologist licensed to engage in the practice of
psychology in this state as provided in section 38-3111 or as provided in
similar provisions of the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact;
(iii) A person licensed as an independent mental health practitioner under the Mental Health Practice Act; or
(iv) A professional counselor who holds a privilege to practice in
Nebraska as a professional counselor under the Licensed Professional Counselors Interstate Compact; and
(h) Resilience training means training that meets the guidelines established by the Critical Incident Stress Management Program under section
71-7104 and that teaches how to adapt to, manage, and recover from adversity,
trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress.
(9) All other provisions of the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act apply to this section.
Sec. 7. Section 48-145, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, is amended to read:
48-145 To secure the payment of compensation under the Nebraska Workers'
Compensation Act:
(1) Every employer in the occupations described in section 48-106, except the State of Nebraska and any governmental agency created by the state, shall either (a) insure and keep insured its liability under such act in some corporation, association, or organization authorized and licensed to transact the business of workers' compensation insurance in this state, (b) in the case of an employer who is a lessor of one or more commercial vehicles leased to a self-insured motor carrier, be a party to an effective agreement with the self-
insured motor carrier under section 48-115.02, (c) be a member of a risk management pool authorized and providing group self-insurance of workers'
compensation liability pursuant to the Intergovernmental Risk Management Act,
or (d) with approval of the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court, self-insure its workers' compensation liability.
An employer seeking approval to self-insure shall make application to the compensation court in the form and manner as the compensation court may prescribe, meet such minimum standards as the compensation court shall adopt and promulgate by rule and regulation, and furnish to the compensation court satisfactory proof of financial ability to pay direct the compensation in the amount and manner when due as provided for in the Nebraska Workers'
Compensation Act. Approval is valid for the period prescribed by the compensation court unless earlier revoked pursuant to this subdivision or
subsection (1) of section 48-146.02. Notwithstanding subdivision (1)(d) of this section, a professional employer organization shall not be eligible to self-
insure its workers' compensation liability. The compensation court may by rule and regulation require the deposit of an acceptable security, indemnity, trust,
or bond to secure the payment of compensation liabilities as they are incurred.
The agreement or document creating a trust for use under this section shall contain a provision that the trust may only be terminated upon the consent and approval of the compensation court. Any beneficial interest in the trust principal shall be only for the benefit of the past or present employees of the self-insurer and any persons to whom the self-insurer has agreed to pay benefits under subdivision (11) of section 48-115 and section 48-115.02. Any limitation on the termination of a trust and all other restrictions on the ownership or transfer of beneficial interest in the trust assets contained in
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such agreement or document creating the trust shall be enforceable, except that any limitation or restriction shall be enforceable only if authorized and approved by the compensation court and specifically delineated in the agreement or document. The trustee of any trust created to satisfy the requirements of
this section may invest the trust assets in the same manner authorized under subdivisions (1)(a) through (i) of section 30-3209 for corporate trustees holding retirement or pension funds for the benefit of employees or former employees of cities, villages, school districts, or governmental or political subdivisions, except that the trustee shall not invest trust assets into stocks, bonds, or other obligations of the trustor. If, as a result of such investments, the value of the trust assets is reduced below the acceptable trust amount required by the compensation court, then the trustor shall deposit additional trust assets to account for the shortfall.
Notwithstanding any other provision of the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act, a three-judge panel of the compensation court may, after notice and hearing, revoke approval as a self-insurer if it finds that the financial condition of the self-insurer or the failure of the self-insurer to comply with an obligation under the act poses a serious threat to the public health,
safety, or welfare. The Attorney General, when requested by the administrator of the compensation court, may file a motion pursuant to section 48-162.03 for an order directing a self-insurer to appear before a three-judge panel of the compensation court and show cause as to why the panel should not revoke approval as a self-insurer pursuant to this subdivision. The Attorney General shall be considered a party for purposes of such motion. The Attorney General may appear before the three-judge panel and present evidence that the financial condition of the self-insurer or the failure of the self-insurer to comply with an obligation under the act poses a serious threat to the public health,
safety, or welfare. The presiding judge shall rule on a motion of the Attorney General pursuant to this subdivision and, if applicable, shall appoint judges of the compensation court to serve on the three-judge panel. The presiding judge shall not serve on such panel. Appeal from a revocation pursuant to this subdivision shall be in accordance with section 48-185. No such appeal shall operate as a supersedeas unless the self-insurer executes to the compensa