Weekly District 30 Update – 4/25/25 State Senator Myron Dorn

This past week the legislature has begun meeting into the evenings in order to move bills that may have extended debate, and to get more accomplished. We begin at 9 in the morning, break for lunch for an hour and then meet until 5:30. We take a 30-minute break for dinner and then continue on with the agenda. Generally we will adjourn by 9:00.

Many bills that we discuss, advance with little debate. Other bills hit a snag or tend to be controversial in nature which may lead to a filibuster. Standard practice for a cloture motion to end a filibuster can be made after 8 hours of debate on General File, four hours on Select File and 2 hours on Final Reading. This year Speaker Arch made an announcement at the beginning of session that if he deems a bill to be one of a social nature the debate hours would be reduced to 4, 2, and 1. These are the types of issues where most senators, if not all, know how they will vote.

One such bill is LB 89, ‘Stand with Women Act’ Senator Kauth introduced this bill. We started the debate at 3 p.m. on April 22nd and ended the debate at 7 p.m. that evening. The bill would define male and female, schools would have to adopt policies, if they haven’t already and designate “male” and “female” use only bathrooms. Public school sports would be restricted to students’ sex assigned at birth. An amendment was offered by Senator Merv Riepe of Omaha who wants to apply this to sports only. He did support the cloture motion on General File with the caveat that he would only support it on the next round if his amendment were adopted. His vote is pivotal to see this bill through. I supported this bill to ensure safe spaces for all kids in schools.

Another issue that received extended debate was LR 20CA. Senator Bostar offered this constitutional amendment which would allow online sports gaming. Arguments were made, not down party lines, but by senators’ stance on expanded gambling. Proponents said that online gaming is already all-around Nebraska and said there is a busy cornfield over in Iowa where people drive in order to get around the blocked online access. They also said surrounding states permit it and we are losing dollars to those states. If the resolution was adopted Nebraska could collect almost $32 million in revenue. Opponents said that this type of gaming is dangerous and targets young men in their 20’s and don’t have the wisdom to abstain from this type of gaming. Nebraska is one of 17 states that does not allow online gaming. After several hours of debate, Senator Bostar pulled the resolution from the agenda. He said he did not have the 33 votes to overcome a filibuster. He will work on it for the next session. The resolution, if adopted by the legislature, would put the issue on the November, 2026 ballot. I would have supported LR 20CA and let the voters decide in 2026.

Next, a bill by Senator Tom Brandt would combine the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment and Energy. LB 317, at the request of the Governor, would have these two agencies become one and will be known as the Department of Water, Energy and Environment, DWEE. A section of this bill would have repealed statutes that pertained to the commercial disposal of low-level nuclear waste. An amendment was offered to keep this language in statute so Nebraska could not become a potential dumping ground for other states’ nuclear waste. The amendment was adopted. The bill advanced to the Final Reading on a voice vote.

The Appropriations committee made our final decision on the budget package of five bills. LB 260 addresses deficits to the current Medicaid program and other current deficits. We needed to fill this shortfall to see the program through the end of our state budget cycle, ending on June 30th of this year. LB 261 is called the Main Line Budget bill. LB 261 contains all the funding for state agencies and programs. This is the bill that will receive the greatest amount of debate since it relates to programs senators and constituents want to see fully funded, or where more cuts can be made. LB 262 is the bill for senators’ salaries and per diems. This is done every two years. LB 263 is the bill for the approval of the constitutional officers’ salaries and health insurance; Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Auditor and State Attorney General. The bill also contains the appropriation for salaries and health insurance for the judges across the state. The last bill, LB 264, provides for fund transfers, changes provisions governing the administration and the use of funds and repeals previous expansions to aid and incentive programs. The budget bills must be reported to the floor by the 70th legislative day, which is April 29th. The debate on these bills will most likely begin on May 6th.

For more information on the Nebraska Legislature, the link is: nebraskalegislature.gov   

Here you can find all the information on bills, hearing schedules, information on senators, legislative divisions, and legislative reports etc.

My contact information is mdorn@leg.ne.gov and 402-471-2620. As always, I appreciate hearing from you.