Governor Rails Against Filibuster
By Gordon Hopkins
Governor Jim Pillen took to social media when a bill intended to support students who struggle with reading stalled in the legislature.
According to the statement of intent, LB (Legislative Bill) 1050 sought to improve early literacy in Nebraska by:
- Identifying third-grade students who are and are not able to read at or above grade level, as determined by the established threshold set by the Department of Education; and
- Retaining certain third-grade students who cannot read at or above grade level; and
- Ensuring retained third-grade students with persistent reading deficiencies receive intensive intervention courses.
The legislature requires at least 33 votes to invoke cloture, which ends debate and brings the bill up for a vote. After four hours of debate, the vote for cloture was 31-4. It is worth noting that there was one absence and another 13 senators refused to take a position.
Opposition to the bill was led by Senator Jane Raybould of Lincoln, who said she did not want to pass costs onto schools without additional state funding.
Some opponents, such as Senator Ben Hansen of Blair said teaching reading was already a primary goal of schools. He said, “If all of their money has to go to teaching students how to read, that should be their primary goal.”
Governor Pillen had been a supporter of the bill, which was introduced by Senator Dave Murman. After the vote, Pillen posted on Facebook and X, “Today, the Nebraska Legislature failed to advance a commonsense measure that would have held public schools accountable for the basic literacy of the kids they are entrusted to educate. Despite having the bipartisan support of an overwhelming majority of senators (more than 63 percent!), it could not even get a fair up-or-down vote because of the Legislature’s broken filibuster rule. This is not the first time the filibuster rule has obstructed bills that enjoyed the support of a clear majority of the people’s representatives. Pro-Life protections, tax reform, winner-take-all, keeping men out of women’s bathrooms, and other much-needed bills have been deprived of fair up-or-down votes by a minority of the Legislature. Nebraskans are electing majorities Lincoln to get work done, only to have it die by an antiquated filibuster rule. This is dysfunctional and fails to serve the will of the people of our state. Senators should put politics aside and get the people’s work done.”
In addition to the cases Pillen noted in his post, a bill intended to provide compensation under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act for cancers experienced by Nebraska firefighters, LB 400, failed to get past a filibuster in the Nebraska Legislature by a single vote.
