Wednesday, Jan 3^rd marked the beginning of the second session of the 105^th  legislature.   As an interesting tidbit of information.   This is the earliest date a session of the legislature can convene. According to our state constitution, article III section ten, the legislature shall commence at 10 a.m. on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January of each year.   Since Monday was the 1^st, we could start on the Wednesday the 3^rd .    I am going to take this as a good sign that we are ready to get started and that we will get a lot accomplished during this short session.

As you may know we call this session a short session because we meet for sixty legislative days during even numbered years and we meet for ninety legislative days during odd numbered years.   Why do we not meet for the same number of days each year?    It’s because during the long session which is ninety days we are tasked with creating the biennium budget.

The short session can be a very busy session for several reasons. For instance, we have several bills that carried over from the last session.   Since these bills have already had their hearings we can start to debate them on floor right away.    As a matter of fact we will start full session debates on bills starting Monday the 8^th.    Second, Senators are finishing up drafting new bill for this session and these need to be submitted within the first ten days.   Third, sometimes, like this year, we unfortunately had to address a projected budget shortfall.  Currently that budget shortfall is projected to be somewhere between 150 to 200 million dollars.

On Wednesday, the Governor will address the Legislature to give his State of the State Address at 10 a.m. in which he will lay out his plan to address the budget shortfall.    His plan will then be given to Appropriations Committee to review.   The Appropriations Committee will study the Governor’s plan, make some changes and recommendations.   I do not see the legislature starting the debate on the budget changes until late January, early February.    So in the interim we will be addressing carry-over legislation and starting on committee hearings for the new bills proposed for this session.

One bill that I have written is LB718 – Adopt the Higher Education Free Speech Accountability Act.   This bill looks to guarantee free speech for all on college campuses in the state of Nebraska.   The impetus for this bill was born out of well published incident on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus in which a college sophomore was denied her right to free speech.   I want to be clear that this is not the only reason I felt this bill needed to written.   After it was known that I, along with Senator Edman and Senator Brewer had raised our concerns to the university, our offices were flooded with phone calls, emails of support and stories from others who felt their freedom of speech rights were suppressed as well when they attended college.   So it’s not based on a single, isolated incident but a pattern of behaviors over time.   Seven states have already passed similar legislation and ten states have legislation pending.   Based on communications that I have received from both supporters and detractors, I am drafting an amendment that will strengthen the bill.   My ultimate goal is defended and protected everyone’s First Amendment rights to free speech at institutions of higher learning.