It appears the relentless, nearly month-long rolling filibuster in the Nebraska Legislature may soon end.
Just before the St. Patrick’s Day recess day, Speaker John Arch announced a course of action to address Sen. Michaela Cavanaugh’s disruption of the session. She opposes Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s LB 574 which would ban “gender affirming care” where children are given hormonal “puberty blockers” or surgical procedures to remove healthy parts of the child’s anatomy.
I am a co-sponsor of Sen. Kauth’s bill. I believe that it is important to protect children from irreversible, life-changing elective procedures that they do not have the maturity to decide about for themselves.
Sen. Cavanaugh has been filibustering every bill before the body because she opposes LB 574 and wants to delay its consideration on the floor. Since this bill is the subject of her ongoing filibuster, the speaker will put this bill up for debate next week, so the filibuster is actually about the bill before the body.
After this bill is heard, there will be other bills subjected to extended debate, but the reasoning for shutting down the whole body over LB 574 will be gone. I wanted to write about this news because I think the speaker has shown some good leadership on this problem. More will be required.
I also want to address numerous calls and messages I have received about this filibuster. People are justifiably concerned about our legislative rules that allow one senator to shut down the business of the people of Nebraska. A strong majority of senators are also concerned about this rule and many want to introduce and pass a change to the rules to prevent this from happening in the future. Our rules should be stable, but they should never stand still. I think a change is badly needed.
The question is, when is the best time to address what will be a very contentious rule change debate? I think the best answer I have heard is what every senator with a priority bill on the agenda will tell you, “Do it after my bill passes.”
The last thing a senator wants when their bill is up for debate is for the body to have just finished an ugly fight, with hard feelings fresh in senators minds.
It is important to remember that for the past five years or so, there has not been 33 votes in the legislature to end filibusters on a long list of things the people want — reducing property taxes, school choice, abortion, the right to keep and bear arms, voter ID, religious liberty, etc.
The governor’s priorities of overhauling how we fund schools and actually reducing the size and cost of our state government depend on having the votes.
Elections have consequences, and so far the consequences I am seeing from the 2022 legislative elections have been positive. It is my hope that conservative senators will hold to the principles that they were elected to champion. Many good bills have fallen short by only one or two votes over the last six years I have been in office. Now we finally have the votes to pass many of these ideas, if senators stick to their hometown values when it comes time to vote on legislation.
This year’s filibuster has made it very clear that our rules need to change. I think the speaker’s leadership thus far has been fair and thoughtful, but the patience of senators is wearing thin. I think the people’s patience is wearing thin, too.
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“Hair on fire” Marxists like Cavanaugh…only care about agendas! They don`t care that they are pushing unhealthy lifetime outcomes on young people, who aren`t mature enough to make decisions such as that. All democrats are stone nuts!
Dr. Rachel Levine says changing kids’ genders will soon be fully embraced: ‘Wheels will turn on this’
Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine promised that medically changing kids’ genders will soon be normalized.
Levine praised the “gender-affirming care” at the Pediatric Grand Rounds session at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. Levine was invited to speak at the event about the Florida Parental Rights in Education law and the political implications of gender reassignment surgery taking place at children’s hospitals.
Levine also said gender-affirming care for minors had the “highest support” of the Biden administration.
Not one bill has been passed and sent to the governor for signature so far in this session. Not. One. Bill.
Anybody else remember when the Democrats in congress wanted to do away with the filibuster so they could ram through legislation unhindered and everybody with a working mind thought that was a terrible idea? I remember, and it’s just as dumb an idea for the unicameral.
Here’s a better idea, drop the foolish 90/60 day sessions and stop letting senators use that artificial cut off date to force bills off a cliff to die just by reading the phone book for 8 hours a day. I’m guessing senator Cavanaugh’s resolve to filibuster every bill wouldn’t have existed in the first place if she knew she’d have to filibuster all day every day for her whole term and not just for a few weeks a year.