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Last week, the Executive Board held a public hearing on LR198 to study whether to make changes to the structure of standing committees in the Legislature.
Specifically, the resolution proposes to create a Technology Committee as a new standing committee and combine the Agriculture Committee and the Natural Resources Committee.
In the past, the Legislature has at various times considered merging the Agriculture Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. Such proposals have been brought in order to try to spread out the Judiciary Committee’s high workload across five days a week instead of the current three days a week it meets during legislative sessions.
In a typical year, the Judiciary Committee can receive between 90 to 100 pieces of legislation. For example, in this year alone, the Judiciary Committee held public hearings on 132 bills and resolutions. This means it is not unusual for public hearings in that committee to go past 8 p.m. to ensure all bills get heard by the public before the deadline for public hearings in each legislative session ends. From my prior experience on this committee, these long hearings deter the asking of good questions by senators and frustrate people who drove multiple hours to Lincoln to testify.
Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Committee currently meets three days a week, while the Agriculture Committee meets only one day a week. However, this year, the Natural Resources Committee only heard 33 bills and resolutions and the Agriculture Committee only heard 14 bills and resolutions respectively. As far back as the 1990s, it was commonplace for both committees to have many more pieces of legislation, but as more agriculture, environmental,and electric utility issues became settled law, fewer bills were brought. According to some in the body, it now makes sense to merge these committees together since they both have a relatively light load.
LR198 deviates from prior proposals since it seeks to create a Technology Committee instead of merging the Agriculture Committee and the Natural Resources Committee together so that the Judiciary Committee can have more days to hold public hearings. The purpose of the Technology Committee would be to have subject matter jurisdiction over legislation that deals with emerging technology, such as artificial intelligence. The Committee could also have jurisdiction over bills that deal with cybersecurity and the state’s technology systems.
Each standing committee is allowed to designate two bills as priority bills. Priority bills have a better chance of being heard on the floor because they typically get preferential scheduling over other non-prioritized bills.
Although the two committees don’t typically receive a large number of bills and resolutions each year, they have subject matter jurisdiction over a significant portion of Nebraska’s economy that have a particular impact on rural Nebraska.
For perspective, agriculture accounts for approximately one in four jobs and 20 percent of all income earned by Nebraska’s workforce. Ensuring rural Nebraska, especially our state’s agricultural sector, is adequately represented in the Legislature is a consideration of mine.
The Legislature has attempted to combine these two committees in the past but has ultimately never done so. The earliest action could take place to create a Technology Committee and combine the Agriculture Committee and the Natural Resources Committee next January, should the Legislature choose to amend its rules.
I invite you to let me know your concerns. My Capitol number is (402) 471-2801, my email is bdekay@leg. ne.gov. My mailing address is: Sen. Barry DeKay, Dist. 40, P.O. Box 94604, State Capitol, Lincoln, NE 68509.
