PRIA Logo™
NebraskaLB608109th Legislature 1st and 2nd SessionslegislatureWALLET

Change insurance provisions relating to firefighters and include correctional officers, youth detention officers, certain disabled persons, and their children in the First Responder Recruitment and Retention Act

Sponsored By: Eliot Bostar

Signed by Governor

Revenue Committee

Your PRIA Score

Score Hidden

Personalized for You

How does this bill affect your finances?

Sign up for a PRIA Policy Scan to see your personalized alignment score for this bill and every other piece of legislation we track. We analyze your financial profile against policy provisions to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.

Free to start

Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

5 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.

Health coverage after on-duty injury or death

The law protects employer health coverage for first responders hurt on the job. If the injury makes you fall below the hours needed to keep coverage, your employer must keep your individual or family plan. The employer can end it only if you quit or do not return to work within 12 months. If a first responder dies on duty, the spouse and dependents keep employer coverage for at least 12 months.

Kids must live in Nebraska or repay

If you use a qualifying-child tuition waiver, you must live in Nebraska for five years after your first use. You must file a Nebraska tax return each year to prove residency. If you move away or do not file, you must repay the waived tuition. These duties end if you become totally and permanently disabled or die. The five-year clock starts after your first use and can end at degree completion or when you formally stop using waivers.

Tuition waived for first responders and kids

Nebraska public colleges waive all remaining resident tuition for eligible first responders, disabled former responders, and their qualifying children. The college applies the waiver after federal grants and state aid, while you stay enrolled and meet school rules. You must meet admissions, submit a superior officer’s certificate at first enrollment, and file yearly proof of Nebraska employment or disabled status and residency with the Department of Revenue; children must also file the FAFSA and cannot already have a bachelor’s degree. The benefit lasts up to five years from the first award. For correctional and youth detention officers and their children, waivers start July 1, 2027 and are only at state universities.

State helps universities pay waiver costs

Starting July 1, 2028, the state reimburses each state university for 50% of the prior year’s waivers for correctional officers, youth detention officers, disabled former officers, and their qualifying children. Payments depend on the state budget and can be prorated. Universities must request reimbursement in the form the commission requires.

Colleges must process waivers and report

Colleges must tell applicants within 45 days if a tuition waiver is approved or denied, and why if denied. Colleges and universities must set rules to run the program. The Department of Revenue runs and enforces the Act and can make rules. Each year, colleges send the Department a list of children who used waivers; by August 1 the Department tells colleges who did not file a Nebraska tax return. The law also repeals older sections and replaces them with this program.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

  • Eliot Bostar

    legislature

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 248 • No: 99

legislature vote • 4/24/2026

Vote

Yes: 33 • No: 0 • Other: 16

legislature vote • 4/24/2026

Vote

Yes: 0 • No: 41 • Other: 8

legislature vote • 4/24/2026

Vote

Yes: 41 • No: 0 • Other: 8

legislature vote • 5/30/2025

Final Reading

Yes: 36 • No: 12

legislature vote • 5/8/2025

Vote

Yes: 41 • No: 0 • Other: 8

legislature vote • 5/8/2025

Vote

Yes: 0 • No: 41 • Other: 8

legislature vote • 5/8/2025

Vote

Yes: 29 • No: 5 • Other: 15

legislature vote • 4/24/2025

Vote

Yes: 35 • No: 0 • Other: 14

legislature vote • 4/24/2025

Vote

Yes: 33 • No: 0 • Other: 16

Actions Timeline

  1. Approved by Governor on June 4, 2025

    6/6/2025legislature

  2. Cavanaugh, M. FA193 withdrawn

    5/30/2025legislature

  3. Cavanaugh, M. FA194 withdrawn

    5/30/2025legislature

  4. Dispensing of reading at large approved

    5/30/2025legislature

  5. Passed on Final Reading 36-12*-1

    5/30/2025legislature

  6. President/Speaker signed

    5/30/2025legislature

  7. Presented to Governor on May 30, 2025

    5/30/2025legislature

  8. Placed on Final Reading

    5/12/2025legislature

  9. Enrollment and Review ER59 adopted

    5/8/2025legislature

  10. Bostar AM1347 filed

    5/8/2025legislature

  11. Bostar AM1347 adopted

    5/8/2025legislature

  12. Wordekemper AM1129 filed

    5/8/2025legislature

  13. Chair ruled AM1129 not germane

    5/8/2025legislature

  14. Motion to overrule Chair pending

    5/8/2025legislature

  15. Motion to overrule Chair prevailed

    5/8/2025legislature

  16. Cavanaugh, J. FA192 to AM1129 filed

    5/8/2025legislature

  17. Cavanaugh, J. MO234 Bracket until June 9, 2025 filed

    5/8/2025legislature

  18. Cavanaugh, J. MO234 failed

    5/8/2025legislature

  19. Cavanaugh, J. MO236 Reconsider the vote taken on MO234 filed

    5/8/2025legislature

  20. Cavanaugh, J. MO236 withdrawn

    5/8/2025legislature

  21. Cavanaugh, J. FA192 withdrawn

    5/8/2025legislature

  22. Wordekemper AM1129 withdrawn

    5/8/2025legislature

  23. Hallstrom AM1356 filed

    5/8/2025legislature

  24. Hallstrom AM1356 withdrawn

    5/8/2025legislature

  25. Advanced to Enrollment and Review for Engrossment

    5/8/2025legislature

Bill Text

  • Introduced

    6/6/2025

    PDF

  • Enrolled / Slip Law

    PDF

  • Final / Enacted

    PDF

Related Bills

Back to State Legislation