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By Shelli Dawdy

To view more of documents from the event – CLICK HERE

We have published several articles about a bill that came up at the Nebraska Unicameral last legislative session that we have often called “the bill that just won’t die”. LB1110 was introduced by Lincoln Senator Kathy Campbell under a suspension of the rules vote. Its purpose was to to provide emergency funding for Nebraska women who had been disqualified from Medicaid coverage for their prenatal care for reasons ranging from failure to comply with guidelines to status as an illegal immigrant.

Additional details about the bill and the many maneuvers that were attempted to keep it alive during the session were detailed in a couple of the articles we’ve written previously, which can be found in a list at the bottom of this article. The entire saga surrounding LB1110 during session is hard to describe as anything thing other than sordid. It revealed how elastic Constitutional constraints can become when people want to get something done, that the press will work overtime as advocates for a particular point of view, and that our legislators in general have little in the way of accountability when conflicts of interest are in play.

LB1110 was one of those bills that was sold as “for the children”. That fact, coupled with the reality that very tight budget constraints prevented Senators from spending money during the session, are the only things that explain the energy poured into it.

What has been inexplicable ever since is that it literally is the bill that will not die. Senators are promising another go at restoring funding and advocacy groups have kept up a steady rumble. The press has continued to provide assistance by periodically covering the issue. Another bizarre phenomenon is found in the traffic to our site; although the legislature closed 8 months ago, we continue to get traffic from Google searches for the bill. It is the only bill which is searched for by the actual number. Most people don’t remember issues by bill numbers; they search on keywords.

In tracking this whole subject, we have been trying to figure out what is really driving the level of interest in it, and I cannot say as of yet that we have the full answer. One key element did reveal itself when the United Nations Foundation, UN affiliate groups like Voices for Children, the National Association of Social Workers, and others convened the “Symposium on Maternal Child Health in Nebraska” in Omaha on September 30.

In conducting research on activity surrounding LB1110, Linda discovered the scheduling of the Symposium, and we made contact with some of our friends in Omaha who in turn, sent someone to the event for express purpose of discovering just what was going to happen there, to learn which additional groups and people were involved, and to obtain any printed information that was distributed.

After the event took place, the individual who attended gave the documents to our friends who sent them to us. I have processed them and loaded them up so anyone who wishes can have a look for themselves. I have only included the cover from one of the handouts in this article. For the moment I have only loaded them to the online viewer on the Scribd site. Anyone can view documents there, but in order to print anything out, you do have to create an account. If you wish to print the documents but do not want to create a Scribd account, please leave a comment below, and that will let me know it is worthwhile to load them up to GiN’s server.

I do highly recommend people who are interested in preserving the sovereignty of Nebraska, of the United States, in the conduct of legislators, reducing government spending and reverse the trend of the welfare state, and other such matters, to take the time to review the documents. I learned that some of our legislators received calls regarding the Medicaid prenatal care issue and maternal child health following the Symposium. The documents make it clear, and the individual who attended for the purposes of learning more about what was going on confirms, that a primary goal of the Symposium was to motivate those in attendance to pressure their legislators into taking action on expanding relevant welfare programs.

We will be reporting on this whole subject further, but for the moment, this seems like plenty of information to digest. The few Nebraskans who are aware of the fact that an event funded by the United Nations was convened in Nebraska for the purposes of promoting a legislative agenda have a very immediate and typical reaction:

“What is the UN doing in Nebraska?!”

To view all of the documents collected from the Symposium – CLICK HERE

Prior articles on LB1110:

DOA or Resurrecting the Dead? Nordquist, One World & LB1110

Nebraska Deem & Pass? LB 1110 Proved Shenanigans Not Limited to Federal Government

Nebraska Appleseed Not Happy: Judge Refuses Injunction

LB 1110: Another Conundrum Caused By Federal Government