Legislative Update #10
Update from Tess Peterson, our fantastic 2026 Intern:
Tuesday marks day 56 of 60, which means this short session is winding down, and full-day debates have had the senators debating well into the evening hours this week. Speaker Arch acknowledged that time is running out and that some things may not get debated. The bills prioritized will be the budget, and those impacting the budget balance or with emergency clauses will be scheduled first. The Speaker also announced earlier this week that Thursday, April 2nd, was the last day to file debate on bills the body hoped to pass this year. This week, we saw quite a few appropriations (A) bills advance as the body worked through a backlog of A bills. Many bills moved this week; however, a few bills this week carried major debate. On Monday, the Legislature spent considerable time debating LB304, which maintains child care subsidies at 185% of the federal poverty level. This bill was advanced despite pushback over government spending. Tuesday's debate was taken up primarily by LB965 out of the Judiciary Committee, which focused on various topics relating to sexual abuse and domestic violence, as well as a tense debate on LB839 over affordable and accessible housing mandates. Wednesday's debate brought up the most expensive debate of the week: LB1261, which allows private power generation for data centers. This raised concern about the environmental impacts of water usage and the tax incentives for these companies. LB935 was also debated on Wednesday, where the body debated the general fund diversion of court fees. On Thursday, April 2nd, the body passed LB829, LB904, and LB1253 with emergency clauses, while debate focused on an amendment to LB966 regarding the use of campaign funds for childcare. The bill was advanced without this amendment. Looking forward to next week, the Speaker has indicated that only priority bills with assured votes will be scheduled. Next week will be the last week for the Select File debate, meaning all bills must be returned to the Clerk before adjournment on Wednesday. Days 57-59 will be reserved for the bulk of the Final Reading, with day 58 acting as the one-day layover. The Speaker plans to have all bills read by day 59. The Legislature is moving quickly through the final days of session with much more work to come next week.
From Kent: We are winding down the 2026 legislative session, and many of you are waiting patiently for your bills either to pass, or to see if something crazy is still coming that will cause issues with your world. Here’s a little stat that has the Speaker’s Office way worried concerning next week: As of right now, there are 52 bills on Final Reading and another 38 that have been voted on twice and are awaiting placement on Final Reading from the Enrollment and Review team. There are 36 bills currently on Select File awaiting their second round of debate and another 12 that have been advanced from General File and will be placed on Select likely sometime on Tuesday. If they all make it to Final Reading, figuring an average read time on the final vote of 3 minutes each, that’s 7 HOURS of them sitting in the chairs passing bills to the Governor. They have about 22 hours of potential Select File Debate time on Tuesday and Wednesday. If just 4 of those 48 bills on Select File are filibustered…and that seems very likely, that eats up 16 of those hours, according to our pace of play with Speaker Arch. I’m going to spend much of that time pacing the marble floors awaiting imminent action on lots of things.
Also…Thursday the Speaker has scheduled debate on a Rules proposal that would create a major shift in the Unicameral’s Committee Structure for the first time in decades. The proposal is to split the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee up and create a new Telecom and Technology Committee and then to combine the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee into one. Stay Tuned, as this could make my head hurt a lot next year as I try to figure out what day it is during session. IYKYK!!
Bring on Sine Die!