Senators keep restrictions on bills, consider prison changes
By Fred Knapp , Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
Jan. 24, 2025, 5 p.m. ·

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The Nebraska Legislature adopted rules on Friday governing how it will conduct business this year, despite warnings that it's diminishing its own power. And the Judiciary Committee heard a proposal to limit the use of restrictive housing for prisoners.
Last year, senators adopted a rule that said each one of them could introduce no more than 20 bills per year. The idea was to cut down on the number of public hearings and reduce overload. But Sen. Terrell McKinney said the effect is to limit lawmakers’ ability to respond to changes their constituents want to see. And he said the limit is part of a larger trend.
“We shift power to the executive branch," McKinney said. "We shifted power to the lobby and advocacy groups. We already did it with term limits a long time ago. We just keep shifting power away from the people. But we call this the people's house. If the people are listening, your house is being diminished and has been diminished slowly, slowly and slowly."
McKinney hit his 20-bill limit this year, including one proposed constitutional amendment, and said he probably would have introduced more bills dealing with juveniles and prisons if he could have.
But Sen. Ben Hansen, author of the bill limit adopted last year, said it had reduced the number of bills for the first time in many years, and should be given more time to work. Hansen read a list of limits from other states.
“Arizona, their limit: 7, Colorado, 5, Florida, 6, Indiana 10, Louisiana 5, Montana, 7, North Carolina 15, North Dakota 15, Oklahoma, 8, Tennessee, 15, Virginia, 15, Wyoming 5, California, no more than 50 bills in a two year period, Florida, 6. (It) kind of goes on and on here,” Hansen said.
McKinney’s supporters pointed out Nebraska has the smallest legislature in the country, with only 49 senators in its one-house system. And McKinney said the bill limit gives the governor more power, and gives senators incentive to game the system.
“The governor introduced 22 bills because he has no limit, but we have a limit. There are many loopholes in this rule that has been stated over the last couple days. I could get Senator Lippincott to introduce a bill. I could co-sponsor it. He pull(s) his name off, then I have 21 bills. Doesn't make any sense,” he said.
Sen. Jana Hughes had said she would introduce a proposal to limit the governor as well. But Friday, Hughes said she was holding off because that proposal has not had a public hearing, adding that she intends to introduce it next year.
Senators then voted 31-16 against McKinney’s proposal to abolish the limit. The vote, in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, went strictly along party lines, with all 15 Democrats and one independent supporting McKinney, and all the Republicans, except two who were absent, opposing the change. Senators then voted 33-6 for the overall rules package. Among those supporting it was Sen. Danielle Conrad, a Democrat, who celebrated what had not changed.
“Press access, free speech without additional hindrance, secret ballot and a strong cloture rule were all preserved in the rules that we have before us, and that is why I'm voting for the package as a whole, even though I have disagreements with the body's decision not to revisit the arbitrary bill limitation, or the forced voting measure that Senator Kauth put forward," Conrad said. "But let's not lose sight of the forest for the trees."
Friday afternoon, the Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on Sen. Ashlei Spivey’s bill to change the way Nebraska runs its prisons. Spivey’s proposal (LB99) would say that no prisoner could be placed in restrictive housing, a form of isolation, for more than 15 consecutive days. She said isolation harms inmates’ mental health, and makes them more dangerous when they are released.
Jason Witmer supported the bill on behalf of the ACLU. Witmer said he spent 20 years in prison for robbery and for shooting a fellow gang member, and estimated he spent eight of those years in isolation. He talked about the effect that had on him.
“They gave me the name ‘Little Crazy Jay’ because of my behavior," Witmer said. "That was the individuals inside, if that can encompass kind of how off the rocker I was, every time I came out the hole. It was fight, fight, fight. And I just want to say this in terms of -- we think that we're containing behavior and dealing with it. But in my case, and majority of people I've seen, it was just worse."
Rob Jeffreys, director of the Department of Correctional Services, opposed the bill. He said only 3% of the prison population is in restrictive housing, for reasons such as fighting.
“The recommendations in this bill propose changes that would place some of the staff and some of our population in significant danger… particularly the 15 consecutive days. Think about 15 days just for act of violence. You place someone in restrictive housing, you send the wrong message to the population that if they commit an act of violence in the facilities, there's no serious consequences,” Jeffreys said.
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.
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