A Nebraska legislative committee chose not to advance divisive rules changes, focusing instead on minor adjustments to the legislative process.
Lincoln: So, there was this big meeting in Nebraska where a legislative committee was looking at some proposed changes to how lawmakers do their thing. They had 22 ideas on the table, but guess what? They decided not to vote on the more controversial ones. Instead, they went with a couple of minor tweaks.
State Sen. Ben Hansen and State Sen. Teresa Ibach, who are in charge of the committee, pushed through some small changes. Hansen’s idea is to speed up the process for gubernatorial appointments, making it easier to handle a bunch of them at once unless a few senators want to debate them separately. Ibach wants to change when statements for bills need to be filed, making it a bit quicker.
Now, the committee chair, Loren Lippincott, said they won’t be meeting again this week to discuss other proposals, including some that would make voting for leadership more open. Speaker John Arch has set aside time for more rules debates, and Lippincott thinks the minor changes will pass easily.
But when asked if the more controversial changes would come up, Lippincott just shrugged and said, “Who knows?” It’s a bit of a waiting game now. Unlike regular bills, these rules don’t have a set time limit for debate, which makes things a little tricky.
There’s also talk about whether leadership votes should be open or kept secret. Some senators think open votes would be better for transparency, while others worry it could lead to more partisan issues. It’s a classic debate, really.
As for the cloture rules, they didn’t reach a decision on that either. Some senators are concerned that changing the rules could backfire, especially for rural areas. It’s all a bit up in the air right now, and they didn’t wrap things up before calling it a day.
