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LEGISLATIVE BILL 722
Approved by the Governor April 14, 2026
Introduced by Quick, 35.
A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to behavioral health services; to amend section
71-812, Revised Statutes Supplement, 2025; to allow use of the Behavioral
Health Services Fund for individuals with substance use disorder as
prescribed; to define and redefine terms; and to repeal the original
section.
Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska,
Section 1. Section 71-812, Revised Statutes Supplement, 2025, is amended
to read:
71-812 (1) The Behavioral Health Services Fund is created. The fund shall
be administered by the division and shall contain cash funds appropriated by
the Legislature or otherwise received by the department for the provision of
behavioral health services from any other public or private source and directed
by the Legislature for credit to the fund. Transfers may be made from the fund
to the General Fund at the direction of the Legislature.
(2) The Behavioral Health Services Fund shall be used to encourage and
facilitate the statewide development and provision of community-based
behavioral health services, including, but not limited to, (a) the provision of
grants, loans, and other assistance for such purpose and (b) reimbursement to
providers of such services.
(3)(a) Money transferred to the fund under section 76-903 shall be used
for housing-related assistance for very low-income adults with serious mental
illness or substance abuse disorder, except that if the division determines
that all housing-related assistance obligations under this subsection have been
fully satisfied, the division may distribute any excess, up to twenty percent
of such money, to regional behavioral health authorities for acquisition or
rehabilitation of housing to assist such individuals persons. The division
shall manage and distribute such funds based upon a formula established by the
division, in consultation with regional behavioral health authorities and the
department, in a manner consistent with and reasonably calculated to promote
the purposes of the public behavioral health system enumerated in section
71-803. The division shall contract with each regional behavioral health
authority for the provision of such assistance. Each regional behavioral health
authority may contract with qualifying public, private, or nonprofit entities
for the provision of such assistance.
(b) For purposes of this subsection:
(i) Adult with serious mental illness means an individual a person
eighteen years of age or older who has, or at any time during the immediately
preceding twelve months has had, a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional
disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria identified in the
most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders and which has resulted in functional impairment that substantially
interferes with , or limits , one or more major life functions. Serious mental
illness does not include a diagnosis with a DSM v-code V codes, a substance
abuse disorder disorders, or a developmental disability disabilities unless
such conditions exist concurrently with a diagnosable serious mental illness;
(ii) Housing-related assistance includes rental payments, utility
payments, security and utility deposits, landlord risk mitigation payments, and
other related costs and payments;
(iii) Landlord risk mitigation payment means a payment provided to a
landlord who leases or rents property to a very low-income adult with serious
mental illness or substance use disorder which may be used to pay for excessive
damage to the rental property, any lost rent, any legal fees incurred by the
landlord in excess of the security deposit, or any other expenses incurred by
the landlord as a result of leasing or renting the property to such individual;
and
(iv) Substance use disorder has the same meaning as defined in section
71-430; and
(v) (iv) Very low-income means a household income of fifty percent or less
of the applicable median family income estimate as established by the United
States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(4) Any money in the fund available for investment shall be invested by
the state investment officer pursuant to the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and
the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.
Sec. 2. Original section 71-812, Revised Statutes Supplement, 2025, is
repealed.
LB722
2026
LB722
2026
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