From the Director's Desk

Colleagues,

Last month the 108th Legislature adjured sine die. Our agency engaged very effectively in the legislative process to move Governor Pillen’s agenda of effective and efficient government forward. Some of our successes included:

Our Materiel Division implemented once in a generation comprehensive procurement reform. Many of the reforms were administrative, which I previously shared here, including updating the State of Nebraska Procurement Manual and the new Procurement Certification Program. But big change could only occur legislatively, and with the enactment of LB461 we took a big swing to improve the value and reduce the risk of public procurements. You can find my update on the procurement changes in LB 461 here. As a result of these legislative and administrative changes, DAS implemented 33 of the 34 recommendations in the IKASO Report.

Procurement was far from the only area we led big change. This year saw the passage of LB 1169, introduced by Senator Erdman on behalf of DAS . This bill converts History Nebraska into a code agency to restore accountability and assign responsibility of the agency to the people’s elected leaders. DAS also supported LB 731 which decisively passed and ensures Nebraska law complies with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act so that agency directors can also serve in the military. Another newly enacted bill DAS supported was LB 854 to provide aspiring CPA students more flexibility in when they take the exam.

Additionally, over the 108th Legislature, DAS kept up our commitment to supporting American foreign policy. The latest example is LB 1300, The Pacific Conflict Stress Test Act and Foreign Adversary Contracting Act. Under the Act, DAS will take steps to secure our State’s global supply network against adversarial nations in the Pacific region. For more information about LB 1300 and other steps we are taking to support our national security you can check out my recent FTDD here.

Last but not least, we also had all of our budget recommendations adopted in the Governor’s mid-biennium budget adjustment. Included in this adjustment was $18.2 million in savings from State Budget Division by identifying existing property that can be used for the new State Patrol Troop A headquarters. Across all of our budget adjustments we passed $14.7 million in budget reductions that can be added directly to the Governor’s tax relief efforts.

Thank you to everyone who worked very hard to pass our legislative agenda, particularly Sarah Skinner, Ann Martinez, and Adam Kauffman.

Regards,

Jason Jackson
Director, Department of Administrative Services

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