Unicameral Update: Eight Days In and Priorities Emerge
January 17, 2025
Today marked the eighth legislative day and the close of a busy week filled with bill introduction, a legislative rules hearing, and Governor Pillen’s State of the State. It’s always interesting to see what freshman senators introduce. Interesting in that many of them bring ideas that are new to them, but have been around for years. This year is no different. As of adjournment today, Senators had introduced 432 bills and more than a dozen resolutions calling for constitutional amendments or other action. Two years ago they had introduced 464 bills by the eighth day and 811 by the tenth day. We have heard there were more than 1,000 requests for bills to be drafted in the Revisor’s office. I’m really hoping we don’t end up with 400 more bills next week.
In addition to introducing bills, Senators introduced 20 proposed rule changes. As expected, more than one proposal would impact the number of votes needed to end a filibuster; others dealt with potential penalties for senators who filibuster with debate that isn’t considered relevant; one would remove the new 20 bill per senator limit and another would have reduced the number to 12; last but not least was the frequent attempt to close committee executive sessions to the press. Whenever I see this many people so concerned with limiting the legislative process I think of Ernie Chambers who always said “give me the rules and I’ll find a way to use them against you.”
Governor Pillen delivered his State of the State address on Wednesday and outlined his priorities for this session. While all of his proposals have not been introduced, he made it clear that he plans to shrink state government and find every spare penny in every agency in order to reduce the overall general fund budget. It remains to be seen if the repeated sweep of cash funds will be sustainable. When Session began the state was facing a forecasted deficit of more than $400 million. Thankfully, December receipts were higher than expected and that deficit is now just over $200 million. This news was welcome for those who want to continue to find ways to reduce property taxes. Pillen intends to address the K-12 school funding formula in an additional effort to reduce the reliance on property taxes. Issues rounding out his list of priorities include banning the sale of “fake” meat in Nebraska, convincing the Legislature to adopt a “Winner Take All” presidential elector system, and protecting girls and women from the potential of transexual people sharing spaces with them and competing against them in sports. If you would like to read his address in total, just use this link: https://governor.nebraska.gov/gov-pillens-state-state-address
We all get to enjoy a three-day break from the Capitol. I will be focused on getting legislation summarized and sent out to all of you. (One side note for you: We are aware of a number of bill summary systems that use AI to interpret proposed legislation. We will not be using AI as I have reviewed a number of those summaries and they have yet to be able to identify old versus new language, nor can they describe what the bill actually does.) On Tuesday, Senators will be back to introduce more legislation. Wednesday morning, they will begin debate of the permanent rules, and public hearings will begin at 1:30 that afternoon.
Enjoy your weekend! I’ll be back with more soon!
Korby M. Gilbertson
Radcliffe Gilbertson & Brady