This past Friday marked the end of Day 3 of the 109^th Legislature. The first day was devoted to officer and committee chair elections. I am happy to report that I was elected as chair of the Banking, Commerce, and Insurance Committee and, as a result, I have moved to office 1117 designated for the Banking Committee chair. With this change, I now have a larger team working with me. Joshua Christolear is my committee Legal Counsel, and Tori Osborne has become my new Legislative Aid. Kristina Konecko will continue as my Administrative Aid. Joe Murray has secured a Legislative Aid position with newly elected Senator Dan McKeon. I want to thank Joe for his past service and look forward to working with a truly awesome team!

My legislative email will remain the same (mjacobson@leg.ne.gov), and my constituents can still reach my office at 402-471-2729.

I spent most of this past week moving into the new office and attending meetings of the Committee on Committees. Having served on this committee last year, I had a good idea of what to expect. I was not disappointed.

We often talk about the “nonpartisan” Nebraska Legislature, but clearly, the Legislature is filled with 49 Senators who are either registered Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. The current Legislature consists of 33 Republicans, 15 Democrats, and one Independent. Although political affiliation does not matter on many bills, there are bills that become very partisan, such as social bills, gun bills, and tax bills. It goes without saying that those in the majority party want to control the leadership and makeup of key committees to help ensure that important bills can be voted out of committee and other bills can be stalled.

For purposes of committee assignments, Senators are divided into three caucuses, roughly along similar lines to those of Nebraska’s three Congressional Districts. The Third Caucus is heavily Republican. The First and Second Caucuses are more evenly divided, with Republicans having a slight majority in the First and one more Democrat than Republican in the Second. Since the First and Second Caucuses have nearly equally split, the practice has been to appoint two from each party to the Committee on Committees and one each to the Executive Board. However, this year the Second Caucus deviated from this practice and filled all their seats on the Committee on Committees and Executive Board with Democrats. Meanwhile, the First Caucus stayed with tradition and split the two bodies equally.

The role of Committee on Committee members is to bring their caucus’s preferences to the committee as it works through committee assignments following the election of committee chairs. Committees are filled by rotating between each caucus in order following the chair. So, if the chair is in the first caucus, then the next member is from the second caucus, then the third caucus, and so on. Of course, the committee must also ensure that each Senator has a committee assignment for each day of the week.

This year, the primary disagreement was over who would serve on the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. The Second Caucus had the right to appoint three of the eight members to the committee because the Chair (Sen. Rita Sanders) is in the First Caucus. The makeup of the committee in the previous biennium was five Republicans and three Democrats. So, when the second caucus appointed three Democrats to the committee, the balance shifted the control to the Democrats on a 5-3 basis. Ultimately, after much debate, the First and Third caucus made trades to move Senators Conrad and Raybould to the Natural Resources Committee to balance the Government Committee. I feel bad for both Senators because they have seniority, but there was no other way to get to the desired outcome.

I truly apprecite both Senator Conrad and Senator Raybould for their understanding and grace in moving forward with their new committee assignments. I have developed a good relationship with both Senators over the past two years and believe we can continue to work together on bills on which we have a common agreement.

I am optimistic that we can accomplish much this coming session if we can put partisanship behind us and focus on getting results for Nebraskans. I look forward to seeing what ideas will be put forward this year as we continue with bill introduction and hear the Governor’s State of the State Address on Wednesday.

It is a privilege to represent you in the Nebraska Legislature, and I look forward to hearing from you regarding issues that are important to you. I can be reached at 402-471-2729 or by emailing me at mjacobson@leg.ne.gov.