LINCOLN- After an intense battle over what some senators called "partisan assignments", the Nebraska Legislature's committee make-up was finally sealed on Monday after Speaker Arch motioned to suspend several rules in order to finalize the assignments. During the drawn-out debate over the adoption of the Committee on Committee's report, which would finalize committee assignments with 25 votes, Speaker Arch said the Legislature had entered "no man's land," and fought to either finalize the assignments or redo the whole process.

In response to Speaker Arch's attempt to suspend the rules, Sen. Danielle Conrad said he used that tactic to "stifle debate, to end dissent, to perpetuate a pattern and practice of my way or the highway no matter the precedent." Motions to suspend the Legislature's rules are often used when the body is faced with pressing issues, like the recent Covid-19 pandemic or the 2019 flooding in western Nebraska.

Sen. John Cavanaugh shared a similar sentiment to Conrad's, saying, "When you cut down the rules that protect everyone, you are no longer afforded the protection of those rules. That is why this conversation is so dangerous right now. The rules are here to protect everyone. The rules are meant to be used by all people equally."

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