Last Thursday, May 8, was Day 80 of the legislative session. We passed the budget and will now focus on any remaining priority bills that are in various stages of passage. The budget was challenging to balance this year because we continued to deal with a moving target. When the special session ended last summer, […]

This week will be busy as we begin the second round of debate on LB 261 (mainline budget) and LB 264 (cash fund transfers). Both bills passed the first round of debate last week, but the budget remains out of balance due to the latest report from the Nebraska State Economic Forecasting Board. At its […]

The Legislature was adjourned this past weekend for a much-needed four-day weekend. Although I needed some time in the bank to meet with our outstanding management team, I did take an hour to visit with a group of veterans representing most of the veterans’ groups in the area. They shared their legislative priorities and concerns […]

Monday, April 28 will mark day 69 of the 90-day session. Last Friday, the Nebraska Forecasting Board released its last report before the Legislature discusses the budget. As expected, the board once again lowered the state’s revenue forecast, estimating a decline of another $190 million during the next biennium. This further widens the state’s forecasted […]

Last Friday was day 64 of the Nebraska Legislature. We will begin late-night sessions on Tuesday with one-hour lunch breaks, since the Appropriations Committee will no longer meet over the lunch break. On our first late night, we will go until 7 p.m. with no dinner break. But, the length of late night debate will […]

This past Friday marked Day 60 of the first session of the 109th Legislature. The last of the non-priority bills are finishing their way through the process, and attention has largely turned to priority bills. The speaker did announce this week that he also plans to hold one or two consent calendars. Under the rules […]

The speaker announced this week that he intends to keep bills moving that have made it to Select File, but will only schedule priority bills for General File debate. He has also cautioned that there is a good possibility that some priority bills will not be scheduled for debate due to time constraints. He may […]

Now that committee hearings have ended, all-day floor debate begins. It is likely that several bills will be filibustered, but all-day floor debate will allow General File filibusters to take place in just over one day as opposed to taking nearly a full week. But still, there are several bills yet to be heard, including […]

As committee hearings come to an end, the Legislature will move to all-day floor debate after this week. The first half of the legislative session has proven to be fairly productive if you measure the session by number of bills passed and progress of bills advanced from committee. Through 48 legislative days, 49 bills have […]

All committee and individual priority bills were due last Friday, March 14, and requests for Speaker John Arch’s priority bills were due last Thursday. The speaker announced his selections Monday. Going forward, the speaker will begin scheduling priority bills to be heard on General File and continue to schedule bills that have already moved to […]