As we begin to move into legislative floor debate, I want to announce how I will be handling certain procedural motions under our current rules.

For cloture motions I will follow the “full and fair debate” guidelines of ruling that “full and fair debate” has occurred after 8 hours of debate on general file, 4 hours of debate on select file, and 2 hours of debate on final reading. The “full and fair debate” guideline for appropriation bills accompanying substantive bills (“A” bills) will be 30 minutes of debate at each stage of debate unless in my estimation additional time is needed to debate a substantive issue with the “A” bill, in which case the time for “full and fair debate” will be 1 hour.

As for other procedural practices, I intend to continue, in general, the practice of our recent speakers to not reschedule any bill that fails to advance from general file or from select file, unless the bill is subsequently designated as a priority bill. Additionally, if a motion to invoke cloture fails, I will consider the bill finished for the year, unless the bill is subsequently designated as a priority bill.

This same general rule of not rescheduling a bill will apply to any bill successfully bracketed during debate (to a date certain or without a specified date) and any bill for which the principal introducer chooses to lay the bill over following the filing of a motion to indefinitely postpone pursuant to Rule 7, Section 3(a) and Section 6. In other words, if a principal introducer chooses to lay over their bill during the midst of debate due to the filing of a motion to indefinitely postpone the bill, I will not reschedule the bill on the agenda without subsequent designation of the bill as a priority bill. A bracketed bill may also be rescheduled if subsequently designated as a priority bill.

A reminder that pursuant to Rule 8, Section 5, I will be holding all bills on Final Reading that negatively impact the General Fund until after the Legislature passes the biennial budget bills. Similarly, I also will be holding all bills that reduce the Cash Reserve Fund on Final Reading until after the Legislature passes the biennial budget bills. Although the Cash Reserve Fund is not specifically mentioned in Rule 8, Section 5, the status of the Cash Reserve Fund directly relates to the General Fund and Nebraska’s financial status. This year an unprecedented number of bills provide for funding via a transfer from the Cash Reserve Fund. Holding bills that negatively impact the General Fund and those that reduce the Cash Reserve Fund on Final Reading until the passage of the mainline budget bills will allow the Legislature to have a full picture of the fiscal status of the state prior to making decisions about the funding of individual programs/projects outside of the mainline budget package.