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2021 Nebraska legislative session
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← 2020
2022 →
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| 2021 Nebraska legislative session |
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| General information |
| Session start: January 6, 2021 Session end: May 27, 2021 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Mike Foley (R) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 8, 2022 Last Election: November 3, 2020 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2021 legislative sessions |
In 2021, the Nebraska State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 6 and adjourn on May 27.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2020 elections. Republicans won a 32-17 majority in the Senate. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2021 session, Nebraska was one of 28 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
The Nebraska State Legislature is responsible for redistricting following each census. Legislators were expected to address redistricting as part of the 2021 legislative session. As of the 2020 Census, Nebraska was one of 37 states where legislators were responsible for redistricting.
Leadership in 2021
Nebraska State Senate
- Senate president: Mike Foley (R)
Partisan control in 2021
- See also: State government trifectas
Nebraska was one of 22 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2021 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.
Nebraska was also one of 22 state legislatures where one party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.
The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Nebraska State Legislature in the 2021 legislative session.
Nebraska State Senate
| Party | As of January 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 17 | |
| Republican Party | 32 | |
| Total | 49 | |
Regular session
The following widget shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2021 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation met these criteria in 2021. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of enacting new district boundaries for elected offices, particularly for offices in the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislatures.
To learn more about the redistricting process in Nebraska after the 2020 census, click here.
Standing legislative committees
A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.
At the beginning of the 2021 legislative session, there were 14 standing committees in Nebraska's state government.
Senate committees
- Agriculture
- Appropriations
- Banking, Commerce and Insurance
- Business and Labor
- Education
- General Affairs
- Government, Military and Veterans Affairs
- Health and Human Services
- Judiciary
- Natural Resources
- Nebraska Retirement Systems
- Revenue
- Transportation and Telecommunications
- Urban Affairs
Legislatively referred constitutional amendments
In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.
The methods by which the Nebraska Constitution can be amended:
| Nebraska Constitution |
|---|
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| Preamble |
| Articles |
| I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • XV • XVI • XVII • XVIII |
Nebraska offers three different paths to amending its constitution:
- The legislature can propose legislatively referred constitutional amendments, which are defined in Section 1 of Article XVI.
- Sixty percent of the members of the state legislature must vote for the proposed amendment.
- The legislature can call a special statewide election to present the proposed amendment to the voters if 80 percent of the members of the state legislature vote for any such special election.
- If no special election is called, the proposed amendment must go on the next general election ballot that includes elections for members of the state legislature.
- The amendment becomes part of the constitution if a majority of those voting on the measure vote for it and if it wins favorable votes from at least 35 percent of those voting in the election for any office.
- A constitutional convention can be held to "revise, amend, or change" the constitution if 60 percent of Nebraska's legislators agree to put a question about whether to have such a convention before the state's voters.
- A convention is held if the question wins by a majority vote as long as those voting in favor equal at least 35 percent of those voting in the election.
- Voters must ratify amendments or revisions proposed by the convention.
- An initiated constitutional amendment can be used by the state's citizens to propose constitutional amendments.
- The rules for this are set out in Sections 2 and 4 of Article III.
- The number of signatures required to qualify an amendment for the ballot is 10 percent of the state's registered voters.
Historical partisan control
The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Nebraska.
Nebraska Party Control: 1992-2024
Seven years of Democratic trifectas • Twenty-seven years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
Historical Senate control
In 1934, Nebraska voters approved a constitutional amendment that transformed Nebraska's bicameral, or two-chamber, state legislature into a unicameral, or single-chamber, Nebraska State Senate. The amendment also established the state legislature as a nonpartisan body. The new unicameral Legislature met for the first time in 1937.[1]
While Nebraska's Unicameral is officially nonpartisan, most of its lawmakers are affiliated with the state affiliate of either the Democratic or the Republican Party. In 2015, Ballotpedia began to identify the party affiliation of the Legislature's 49 members. Ballotpedia assigned party affiliation based on voter registration, member lists provided by the Nebraska Democratic Party and Nebraska Republican Party, as well as information provided by nonprofit organizations.
Prior to the 2016 elections, Republicans controlled the Legislature by a 35-12 majority with one independent member and one Libertarian member. Republicans lost three seats in the 2016 elections, but maintained control of the chamber. After the 2020 elections, they had a 32-17 majority. The table below shows the partisan history of the Nebraska State Senate following the 2014 general election.
Nebraska State Senate election results: 2014-2020
| Party | 14 | 16 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 12 | 15 | 17 |
| Republicans | 35 | 32 | 32 |
| Other | 2 | 2 | 0 |
In presidential elections between 1868 and 2016, Nebraska voted Republican 82 percent of the time and Democratic 18 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2004 and 2020, Nebraska voted Republican all five times.[2]
See also
| Elections | Nebraska State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
|---|---|---|---|
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External links
Footnotes
