LINCOLN — It’s been 40 years since the Nebraska Legislature last altered its committee structures, and state lawmakers declined an opportunity to revisit the issue this year.
Term-limited State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington has been pushing for lawmakers to consider rearranging legislative committees to add a focus on technology, but last Thursday she said her proposal lacked enough support to pass. With this being DeBoer’s last session, she encouraged returning lawmakers to continue the effort in future sessions.
“For the good of the body, we do probably need to address these issues,” DeBoer said.
The Nebraska Legislature typically changes its committee structure through its rules, with the last change being in 1986, according to DeBoer. Though lawmakers agreed to reclassify the Retirement Committee from a special committee to a standing committee in 1989, DeBoer said this happened through standard legislation rather than a rule change.
DeBoer’s pitch was to combine the Agriculture and Natural Resources committees into one, and split the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee into two. Transportation would be its own committee, and a separate committee would be established that focused on telecommunications and technology.
Ultimately, DeBoer said her idea lacked enough support to pass this session, which she attributed to her not spending enough time talking to other senators about her proposal.
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DeBoer said she was met with some concerns that the proposed restructuring would diminish the impact of the Agriculture and Natural Resources committees, especially considering the influence both fields have on Nebraska. She countered that quantity does not equate to importance, noting that both committees typically are given fewer bills than other committees.
DeBoer argued that the two committees deal with overlapping issues, and would likely work well together, if combined.
“It seems fairly logical to combine these committees and ensure the left hand and the right hand are talking to each other, so to speak,” DeBoer said.
DeBoer said the benefit to creating a new committee focused on technology issues is that the Legislature could hire staff with expertise in technological fields to serve on the committee. Lawmakers already consider plenty of technology-related bills every session, but they get referred to a range of different committees centered on other policy areas, she said.
While lawmakers won’t debate DeBoer’s proposal this session, she noted that Speaker John Arch of La Vista agreed to make committee structuring a subject of discussion at the next Legislative Council meeting prior to the 2027 session.
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