The hearings phase of this first session of the 107th Nebraska legislature has finally come to an end. This year our new Speaker chose to schedule all-day bill hearings, something that hasn’t happened in decades. We had 684 bills introduced this session, along with a number of resolutions and executive branch appointments. COVID restrictions made the process of holding public hearings much more complicated and time-consuming. Scores of people behind the scenes made all this possible. To all the committee clerks, legal counsels, research analysts, and other legislative staff that did such a great job of getting the people’s business taken care of, I say, “job well done!”

Now that hearings are over and the deadline for designating individual and committee priorities has passed, senators are looking for ways to get their proposals voted out of committees and advanced to the full legislature for debate. A number of committees are equally split between conservatives and liberals, so bills from either end of the political spectrum often remain trapped in committee on a tied vote. I am reminded that elections have consequences and the political ideology of the senators in the body reflect that of the population of our state.

There is a legislative rule that allows a senator to make a motion to “pull” a bill from a deadlocked committee. This motion requires a simple majority of senators (twenty-five votes) to be adopted. Use of this rule is rare because it generates hard feelings — especially with committee chairs — and lengthy, contentious floor debate. 

Many will object to the pull motion arguing it weakens the power of our committee system. The idea behind the rule allowing pull motions is simple to understand: if a majority of senators think a committee has made a mistake in not advancing a bill, a motion to pull the bill is a remedy for that. The speaker informed us recently that at least thirty-five priority bills are still stuck in committee, so I expect to see this sort of motion used before we adjourn for the year.

One last note: of the new features we implemented in the committees this year, my favorite was a new way for citizens to leave comments on the legislative website for the senators to read. I believe this new feature will be very useful in the next phase of our work. Full-day debate on the floor of the legislature has begun. With Senator Chambers no longer in the body, the pace will be more brisk than any time in the last eight years. Senators will have less time to sort through all the information on each bill. I believe this new comment feature will be very informative and useful for senators and gives us a head start on understanding each bill. Brief, timely comments from the public are very helpful as we review legislation. I encourage citizens interested in a bill to look it up on the website and leave a comment.