STATE SENATORS COMPLETE BILL INTRODUCTIONS, FALL SHORT OF RECORD VOLUME

LINCOLN- The Nebraska Legislature has officially wrapped up the 10 days of bill introduction for this session. The amount of bills introduced in the ten days falls just short of a record number of bills. A total of 812 legislative bills were introduced, which is short of the record 885 bills introduced in 1997 for a similar  90-day session.

The 1990s were a big decade for bill introduction, with more than 800 bills introduced four times, in 1991, 1995, 1997 and 1999, during the first year of the Nebraska Legislature’s two-year sessions. State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair had introduced a rule change to limit each of the 49 senators to introduce only 12 bills each session. He contended that too many proposals are being introduced, which has reduced the time available to debate bills. But the Rules Committee did not advance the bill limit proposal.

Sens. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha and Eliot Bostar of Lincoln each questioned whether a limit was necessary and whether such a limit would work. Bostar said lawmakers would “find a way” around any limit by combining more subjects into one proposal. Introducing bills, DeBoer and Bostar argued, was a way to represent a senator’s constituents, and limiting it would be problematic.

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