Inside the Rotunda

All Day Floor Debate Begins Every year, the end of hearings and the start of all-day debate brings to senators and staff a renewed sense of urgency. The weather gets nicer, the days get longer, and the speaker might even begin scheduling late nights where senators don’t adjourn until late

Emotions Run High Once Again It was a relatively quiet week as committees finished up their last hearings and senators debated somewhat technical bills during morning floor debate. Drama, however, reared its head again on Friday as senators continued to discuss whether members of the public should be allowed to

Almost Halfway Through! To quote Sen. Chambers on the legislative floor this week, “We’re getting into the meatier part of session now!” Senators are almost halfway through the sixty-day session, and this week was full of big moments. Public hearings on bills are wrapping up, the deadline for senators to

Gearing Up for the Big-Ticket Items Your Capitol Fly on the Wall made it through this week’s cold temperatures and is ready to report on another busy week. It’s the week before senators must name their priority bills, meaning we’re close to knowing what big issues will be on the

One-Third of the Way Done We’re one-third of the way through the legislative session and things are ramping up. It’s the point in session where senators start to get a little testy with each other, but there was a brief moment of levity on Thursday morning as senators complained about

It’s the Time of Year for…Public Hearings! We’ve already reached Day 16 of our 60-day legislative session! The Capitol has been abuzz with committee hearings since each of the almost 500 new bills has to have a hearing before the end of session in April. The Unicameral is unique in

The Three-hour Rule Strikes Again…and Again Senators picked up on Monday right where they left off last week by debating Sen. Crawford’s LB305, which would require businesses to offer paid time off for sick leave and for victims of domestic violence. After about an hour of debate, the speaker removed