Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
2024 Nebraska legislative session
|
← 2023
2025 →
|
| 2024 Nebraska legislative session |
|---|
|
| General information |
| Scheduled session start: Jan. 3, 2024 Scheduled session end: April 18, 2024 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President John Arch (R) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 5, 2024 Last Election: November 8, 2022 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2024 legislative sessions |
In 2024, the Nebraska State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 3 and adjourn on April 18.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2022 elections. Although the Nebraska legislature is officially nonpartisan, 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 2024 session, Nebraska was one of 20 state legislatures where Republicans had a veto-proof supermajority.
Leadership in 2024
Nebraska State Senate
- Senate president: John Arch (R)
- Majority leader: N/A
- Minority leader: N/A
Partisan control in 2024
- See also: State government trifectas
Nebraska was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2024 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 20 state legislatures where Republicans had a veto-proof supermajority. 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 2024 legislative session.
Nebraska State Senate
| Party | As of January 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 16 | |
| Republican Party | 32 | |
| Other | 1 | |
| Total | 49 | |
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 2024 legislative session, there were 14 standing committees in Nebraska's state government.
Senate committees
- Agriculture Committee
- Appropriations Committee
- Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee
- Business and Labor Committee
- Education Committee
- General Affairs Committee
- Government, Military and Veterans Affairs committee
- Health and Human Services Committee
- Judiciary Committee
- Natural Resources Committee
- Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee
- Revenue Committee
- Transportation and Telecommunications Committee
- Urban Affairs Committee
Legislation
Enacted legislation
The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2024 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 2024. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Election administration legislation
State election laws are changing. Keeping track of the latest developments in all 50 states can seem like an impossible job. Here's the solution: Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker.
Ballotpedia's Election Administration Tracker sets the industry standard for ease of use, flexibility, and raw power. Ballotpedia's election experts provide daily updates on bills and other relevant political developments, translate complex bill text into easy-to-understand summaries written in everyday language, and, because it's from Ballotpedia, our Tracker is guaranteed to be neutral, unbiased, and nonpartisan.
The table below lists 2024 election-related legislation in Nebraska. The following information is included for each bill:
- Bill number
- Official name or caption
- Most recent action date
- Legislative status
- Topics dealt with by the bill
Bills are organized by bill number. The table displays up to 100 results by default. To view additional results, use the arrows in the upper-right corner of the table. For more information about a particular bill, simply click the bill number. This will open a separate page with additional information.
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 |
|---|
|
| 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
Republicans maintained control of the Nebraska State Senate in 2022. That year, they won a 32-17 majority.
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.
The table below shows the partisan history of the Nebraska State Senate following the 2014 general election.
Nebraska State Senate election results: 2014-2022
| Party | 14 | 16 | 20 | 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 12 | 15 | 17 | 17 |
| Republicans | 35 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| Other | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
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]
See also
| Elections | Nebraska State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
External links
Footnotes
