Nebraska lawmakers only have a short time to introduce bills into the current legislative session. The deadline to file bills is this week. Senator Cap Dierks of Ewing says lawmakers used to see massive numbers of bills in every session.
Dierks says 800 bills wasn’t unusual in years past, now it’s far fewer. He says the flood of legislation started to change as term limits brought a crop of new senators to Lincoln.
Two years ago, when the new class of 22 lawmakers came in, only about 700 bills were introduced, and now that another 16 senators have come in, predictions are the numbers will be even lower.
Dierks says in the long run, fewer bills introduced may make for better laws in the long run. He says some committees would be flooded with bills and they only had a limited time to review them and hear comments on them, so a reduced number makes for more time for consideration.
Thanks to Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton