Legislative Update #8
Holy 90 degrees! March 20 is definitely way early for this type of weather, but I’ll take it for now! The only real drawback is that the temperatures in the Rotunda of the Capitol often mirror what’s happening outside, meaning my suit and tie contains way too much material to keep my core temps manageable. Sounds like we’ll be closer to normal next week.
So, what’s happening in the Unicameral? We started late night debates this week, which means I was hanging around the Capitol until well after dark a couple of nights. Thankfully, the last day of the week, like today, they work through lunch and adjourn early to mid-afternoon for the weekend. I plan to spend a significant portion of the rest of the sunlight sitting somewhere, preferably outdoors, watching basketball. For those of you who aren’t Husker fans, The University of Nebraska Cornhusker basketball team made history yesterday by winning their first EVER NCAA tournament game. Go Big Red!
The second round, Select File, debate on the budget bill happened this week, and the mainline bill, LB1071, failed to have enough votes to stop the normal filibuster, and so failed to advance to Final Reading. This bill, that cuts nearly $200M from the budget to help close a $600M shortfall, is the subject of a $3M issue that has caused a quandary. The original bill contained $7M for private school scholarships as requested by the Governor. The Appropriations Committee advanced it to the full group with $3.5M that barely passed the first-round vote with several pledging not to support it unless it was removed. Appropriations Committee Chair Senator Clements saw the writing on the wall and removed the $3.5M, which in turn annoyed a different group of Senators who support that funding. In the end yesterday, only 19 Senators voted to move the bill forward…they need 33 to do so. FAIL!! Speaker Arch scolded them pretty good before adjournment last night and basically demanded that they get their ducks in a row for a second vote on Monday. In order to meet their own Rules, the budget must advance early Monday so that it can be ready for a constitutionally required layover day on Tuesday, and then sent to the Governor on Wednesday, or Day 50, as is required.
12 working days left in 2026!