The Nebraska Legislature moved forward to end the 2023 session ahead of schedule Tuesday, even as several major bills that have passed face legal or political challenges.
This year’s legislative session was originally scheduled to adjourn on Friday, June 9. But on Tuesday, Legislature Speaker John Arch announced that Thursday, June 1, will be the last day.
“Although I had hoped last week that Thursday might be our last day of session, I was not prepared to announce it until I had the governor’s assurance that there would be no possibility of a pocket veto. I have received that assurance this morning,” said Arch.
Unlike the federal system, where a president can veto a bill simply by not signing it or pocketing it after Congress ends, in Nebraska a bill becomes law even if the governor doesn’t sign it .
The governor can still affirmatively veto a bill, and if the legislature has adjourned, lawmakers don’t have the ability to override the veto. Arch said Gov. Jim Pillen has vowed not to veto any pending bill too late for lawmakers to consider an override.
Pillen held a ceremonial signing of LB753, the so-called Opportunity Scholarship Act, on Tuesday. That’s a bill the Legislature passed last week that authorizes scholarships funded by tax credits to be used to send students to private and religious schools. Pillen said the bill will help students get to a school that’s right for them.
“Our children deserve an extraordinary public education. Our children deserve an extraordinary private education. Nebraska needs both. It’s not about who is better or who is worse. It’s about the right fit for our kids,” Pillen said.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters of the bill on the north steps of the Capitol, the governor referred to some of the students the bill singles out as priority for scholarships.
“It’s for our children in poverty, for our children in foster care, and for our children who need a different environment than the military family. Is there any Nebraskan who could be against that? No way . Do you all agree?” asked the governor, as the crowd cheered.
There is at least one group that is against it. The Nebraska State Education Association, the state teachers union, has already announced its support for a referendum campaign to repeal the law. The association argues the law will take funding away from public education, an argument Pillen and other supporters reject.
Also Tuesday, ACLU Nebraska filed one lawsuit attempting to overturn another recently enacted law, contained in LB574. It was a bill that originally had one theme: limiting gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. But senators amended it to also ban most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Mindy Rush Chipman of the ACLU Nebraska said this amendment violated the Nebraska Constitution’s requirement that bills contain only one subject.
“Senators combined two unrelated bans into one bill, circumventing not only the rules but the state constitution itself, in a last-ditch effort to strip Nebraskans of their rights,” Rush Chipman said.
Previous attempts to strike down laws based on the single subject matter requirement have been unsuccessful. But Rush Chipman said those cases were old and dealt with issues like taxes, which were different from this situation.
The suit asks Lancaster District Court to declare the law unconstitutional and seeks an injunction to prevent it from being enforced. Andi Curry Grubb of Planned Parenthood said the bill, signed into law last week, had already forced her organization to refer some patients elsewhere.
“The effects of this abortion ban have been swift. In its first week, we worked with several patients who were no longer able to access abortion in Nebraska, and we only expect that number to increase,” Curry said Grubb.
And Eli Rigatuso, a transgender man, said the transgender healthcare restrictions in the law violate the rights of parents who want to support their children’s transition.
“There are enough parents who have been indoctrinated in religious ideology that they will kick their kids out with a simple warning that they might be LGBTQ plus. And here you have parents who want to support and help their kids thrive, being relegated to not having right head,” Rigatuso said.
Supporters of the law have argued that the two areas it regulates are related, because both seek to enable the unaltered growth of children, born and unborn.
Meanwhile, in Tuesday’s legislative debate, Sen. Julie Slama spent four hours opposing voter ID legislation that she says is not strict enough.
“I do not take the obstruction lightly. At the end of the day, I took an oath to uphold the constitution. And our constitution requires voter ID after the November 2022 election, so I am going to abide by my oath and the will of the people,” Slama said.
Nebraskans voted last November to require a photo ID to vote, while leaving the details of how to make that requirement work to lawmakers. A committee drafted a bill that allows exceptions to the requirement if voters can show they have a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining a photo ID. Slama complained that “reasonable impediment” is not defined.
But Sen. Tom Brewer, chairman of the committee that advanced the bill, said it must pass now.
“We’ve had a long discussion about this. The bill does what the people have asked for. And we’re going into a special session if we don’t pass the voter ID,” Brewer said.
Senators passed the bill in the second round by voice vote, with Slama voting “no.” He said several groups have later expressed interest in a legal challenge. The bill will be put to a final vote on Thursday, the last day of this year’s legislature.
