See the Meetings and Hearings Page for information about dates and locations of Redistricting Committee public hearings.
As always, persons attending a public hearing in person will have an opportunity to present verbal testimony to the committee and be subject to questioning by the committee members. In-person testimony is generally limited to 5 minutes although the chair of each committee has discretion to modify that time limit.
Persons verbally testifying will be listed as a testifier on the committee statement as has been the practice, and have their position included within the official committee hearing record.
If you are not testifying in person on a bill or resolution, or submitting written testimony in person on a bill (Option 2), but would like to submit a position letter to be included in the official hearing record as an exhibit, you must deliver your letter to the office of the committee chair or emailed to the committee’s email account redpl@leg.ne.gov by 12:00 p.m. CST on the last work day prior to the public hearing.
Letters emailed (and not hand-delivered) will not be included as part of the public hearing record if sent to any email other than the committee’s email account redpl@leg.ne.gov.
Your letter must identify the bill or resolution, include your name and address, state a position of for, against, or neutral, on the bill in question and include a request for the letter to be included as part of the public hearing record.
Please note that mass communications will also not be included as part of the official hearing record as an exhibit regardless of delivery time or requests to have the communication included.
In order to facilitate public input on legislation, a new feature has been added to the Nebraska Legislature’s website for submission of written comments on pending legislation on the Legislature’s website at any stage of the process. (To access this feature, search for the bill you wish to submit a statement on and click the corresponding button near the top of the bill page.)
These submissions will not be considered testimony or part of the public hearing record, but the submitted comments will be available for access by senators and staff throughout the session. Please note, there should be no expectation of privacy regarding comments submitted in this format. If a citizen uses the database to submit his or her views prior to the public hearing on a bill or resolution, this option will allow input to the members of the committee prior to any committee votes.
Once the Redistricting Committee approves draft plans, Legislative Research will perform several tests on the maps to ensure proper contiguousness, etc. After testing is complete, additional detail will be added to the maps (e.g., street names). After approval, testing, and finalization of the maps, they will be posted on the Redistricting Committee website.
The Redistricting Committee is established as a special committee of the Legislature in January of each year ending in the number 1. The committee is authorized to introduce and exercise jurisdiction over legislative bills and resolutions relating to redistricting and hold hearings regarding such legislation. The Redistricting Committee for the 2021 process was appointed by the Executive Board on January 27, 2021.
The Redistricting Committee receives staff support from the Legislative Research Office. Additional information on redistricting in Nebraska, including legal briefs, historical maps and census information, is available on the Legislative Research Office’s Redistricting Website.
Streaming video provided by Nebraska Public Media