Inside the Rotunda

Priority Bill Selections, Tension-Filled Executive Session, and Final Hearings Wow, time flies! We’ve already reached the midpoint of the 90-day legislative session. Friday marked the last committee hearing date and the deadline for senators and committees to designate their priority bills. Those milestones along with a couple of substantive floor

Public Hearings Wrap-Up, Installment Bill Advances, and Priority Bill Selections Senators were relieved to wrap up most of their committee hearings this week (the Judiciary Committee lags behind and will finish this next week). As senators’ priority bill designations begin to roll in and committee chairs finalize their committee packages,

This past week, senators completed yet another week of all-day hearings. Committees have held public hearings on almost 700 bills in just six weeks! Soon, they will finally be able to devote the majority of time to floor debate and voting bills across the finish line. Senators did, however, hold

Countdown to End of Hearings, Controversial Election Bills, Special Session for Census Data With Friday marking Day 30, we are officially one-third of the way through the legislative session. The four-day week started out with senators debating and advancing the first batch of substantive bills, followed by more committee hearings

Another week is complete down at the Capitol! Senators and staff limped through the full schedule of hearings and finally made it to the first recess day of the session. On Thursday, Speaker Hilgers announced that most committees will wrap up hearings by March 4th (the Judiciary Committee will get

The slog of all-day committee hearings continued this week, filling five full days with over 150 bills heard in fourteen committees. In a normal year, morning floor debate breaks up the hearing monotony and gives senators a chance to chat and develop relationships with each other. Speaker Hilgers, however, chose

Even as COVID numbers decline in the Lincoln community, the virus continues to force the Legislature to adjust, disrupting longstanding norms and procedures. Senators trudged through the first week of all-day hearings, at times in near-empty hearing rooms. It seems, however, that the public is catching on to the new