LINCOLN- Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh's LB376, a bill to allow the state to seek a federal waiver for a pilot project to provide respite care and other services to help keep developmentally disabled children at home instead of placing them in expensive care centers, died Wednesday. On a 30-11 vote, the bill fell 3 votes short of halting filibuster led by Sen. Julie Slama. The bill, a priority for the Health and Human Services, would have provided $10,000 worth of services per family and would have reduced the state's long-running waiting list for services, now containing 3,000 children and adults.

Sen. Slama said addressing the waiting list is a worthy goal, but not one of the state's top priorities. She also questioned why the measure was not needs based and would cover everyone, even billionaires.

The evening debate slowly turned personal, with Cavanaugh accusing Slama of disingenuous opposition and neglecting families for the sake of making tax cuts. “You did a bad thing yesterday for bad reasons,” she said, charging opponents with killing the bill on behalf of Gov. Pete Ricketts.

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