LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature’s Executive Board heard testimony Tuesday about the effort to clarify its oversight of state agencies after Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Gov. Jim Pillen sought to limit legislative reach. Legislative Bill 298, sponsored by Speaker John Arch of La Vista, would reconstitute many functions of the Offices of Inspectors General for child welfare and corrections and place them under a newly created Division of Legislative Oversight as part of the Legislature.

This design would operate as the legislative branch’s eyes and ears for how the money it spends on behalf of taxpayers is being used, primarily by the executive branch. The new division would report to a new Legislative Oversight Committee picked by the Legislature’s Executive Board. “We aren’t police,” Arch said during his testimony about the reasons behind the bill. “Our requests are not part of a criminal investigation. Our purpose is to legislate and to appropriate. We can’t do either without information.”

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