Sparks are flying in the Unicameral, with priority designations rolling in and a bombshell late in the day on Friday that rocked the Legislature. More about that later. Wednesday will be the 30th day – the halfway point of the short session.
On the Floor
Most of this 4-day workweek’s floor time was spent on a filibuster against Sen. Linehan’s LB 939, a proposal that would cut the top individual income tax rate. Proponents and opponents squabbled over who it would benefit most – with proponents saying it’s a boost for the middle class, while opponents said middle class Nebraskans would see very little relief in comparison to what the wealthy stand to gain under the bill. Analysis shows that the average middle class Nebraskan would see less than $10 of tax relief with this approach. Opponents noted that since our tax system is marginal, a person making $50,000 might only get a few dollars back on that portion of income they make over the top rate threshold, while a person making six figures or more could stand to get many thousands in relief. Both groups are in the same tax bracket under current law. Those leading the filibuster have asserted that a better approach to helping the middle class would be to lower rates on lower tax brackets to benefit everyone, and/or by creating more upper brackets to ensure the wealthy are paying their fair share. A vote is expected early this week.
Senator Ben Hansen’s LB 906, which would provide for medical and religious exemptions for employees of employers requiring COVID vaccines, advanced after successfully achieving cloture to break a filibuster. Cloture requires 33 votes and the measure advanced with 38. As amended, the bill requires the state Department of Health and Human Services to post an online form for employees seeking a religious or medical exemption to their employer’s vaccine requirement. Employers would be allowed to require unvaccinated employees to wear PPE or to be regularly COVID tested. Employees in the medical field are still subject to the federal vaccine mandate as upheld by the Supreme Court.
The Week Ahead
Monday is a state holiday for President’s Day. On Tuesday, we’ll find out the remainder of Senator and Committee priority bills, and the Speaker will announce his priority picks on Wednesday. They will be generally debated in the order that they were designated and available for debate (e.g., those that are out of committee). Two more weeks of hearings remain, and after that there will be one week of regular full-day debate until we add late night debate hours to the schedule.
Thursday is “Abortion Day” at the Capitol, with three highly contentious bills to restrict or ban abortion altogether being heard in Judiciary Thursday afternoon. Two measures on the opposite side, one to expand access to birth control and one to expand the list of qualified medical professionals who can perform abortions, will be heard at the same time as the anti-abortion bills but in the Health and Human Services committee. We’re expecting a huge turnout from citizens and advocates on both sides of the issue, so if you’re looking to testify that day, I’d advise getting here early to find parking and get a good seat. Perhaps the most consequential of these measures is LB 933 (Albrecht). It’s a “trigger ban”, or a complete ban on abortion without exception in Nebraska should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade this summer as expected.
AM 1737 to LB 446, the amendment to require that the state accept federal emergency rental assistance funds, advanced from the Urban Affairs committee with 4 members in support. Proponents of the measure realized there might be concerns raised about the amendment violating legislative rules on germaneness – loosely, that content of an amendment has to directly pertain to the content of the underlying bill – that could cause it to be killed in a procedural fight over legislative rules. To avoid this, AM 1737 will be replaced with AM 1969 to LB 1073. That bill was previously a bill of Sen. Wayne’s which he did not anticipate moving this year; so it has been replaced with the content of AM 1969 as a “vehicle” for the rental assistance provisions.
The bill has an “emergency clause”, meaning it becomes effective immediately upon passage and signing into law by the Governor, as opposed to the standard effective date for other bills that is three months after the adjournment of the session. Sen. Matt Hansen, who introduced the amendment, designated LB1073 as his personal priority bill. Given the Governor’s vocal opposition to this, expect it to face filibusters on every round. It is unclear whether it will have the support it needs to break a filibuster (33 votes) or to override a potential gubernatorial veto (30 votes). If this is something you or your organization is invested in, now’s the time to contact your local senators and to pressure any that you’re not convinced will support it.
And now, the big news you’re probably all clamoring to hear more about. In a whirlwind turn of events Friday, allegations surfaced against Senator Groene, who then rapidly submitted his resignation later that day. There are several media reports out there now with more detail for the curious. In short, a longtime staffer of Groene’s, who is a young woman, found photos that Groene had taken of her body parts and allegedly sent to other parties along with lewd captions. The implications of this are huge, and are certain to cast a shadow over the remaining session. While some celebrate Groene’s rapid departure, there’s been speculation that he made some kind of deal with the Governor or caved to heavy pressure from the NE GOP in order to prevent more political fallout. The Governor will now get to appoint Groene’s successor, who we can presume will hold the seat for 8 years given that incumbent gubernatorial appointees nearly always win re-election. Ricketts will most likely choose someone who will vote in line with his own increasingly hard-line conservative ideals.
A lot of questions are floating around, like how many others in the legislature knew of Groene’s behavior and didn’t report it or might be implicated themselves, whether Speaker Hilgers and Executive Board Chair Hughes tried to keep the matter quiet or handled the allegation appropriately as required by legislative personnel policies, whether the staffer was pressured not to come forward, and more. This is sure to be the subject of a lot of commentary on the mic this week and beyond. Pretty ironic that this is all surfacing just weeks after all senators and legislative staff completed a required workplace harassment training. Did the reporting procedures we learned about work as intended here? Seems not. Stay tuned.
Until next week,
Your Capitol Fly on the Wall
