Nebraska Legislative Session Days Amendment (2014)

Not on Ballot
This measure was not put on an election ballot

The Nebraska Legislative Session Days Amendment was not on the November 4, 2014 ballot in Nebraska as an initiated constitutional amendment. The measure would have limited the length of any legislative session to 30 days. As on 2014, the Nebraska Constitution provides for 90 day regular sessions in odd-numbered years and 60 legislative days in even-numbered years. Either session can be extended by a vote of four-fifths of all members elected to the legislature.

The measure would have amended the third sentence of Section 10 of Article III of the Nebraska Constitution.

Text of measure

Constitutional changes

The measure would have repealed and replaced the third sentence of Section 10 of Article III of the Nebraska Constitution, which would have made the section read as follows, with the underlined text being added and the struck through text being removed:

Beginning with the year 1975, regular sessions of the Legislature shall be held annually, commencing at 10 a.m. on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January of each year. The duration of regular sessions held shall not exceed ninety legislative days in odd-numbered years unless extended by a vote of four-fifths of all members elected to the Legislature, and shall not exceed sixty legislative days in even-numbered years unless extended by a vote of four-fifths of all members elected to the Legislature. The duration of the regular sessions held shall not exceed thirty legislative days in each calendar year. Bills and resolutions under consideration by the Legislature upon adjournment of a regular session held in an odd-numbered year may be considered at the next regular session, as if there had been no such adjournment. The Lieutenant Governor shall preside, but shall vote only when the Legislature is equally divided. A majority of the members elected to the Legislature shall constitute a quorum; the Legislature shall determine the rules of its proceedings and be the judge of the election, returns, and qualifications of its members, shall choose its own officers, including a Speaker to preside when the Lieutenant Governor shall be absent, incapacitated, or shall act as Governor. No member shall be expelled except by a vote of two-thirds of all members elected to the Legislature, and no member shall be twice expelled for the same offense. The Legislature may punish by imprisonment any person not a member thereof who shall be guilty of disrespect to the Legislature by disorderly or contemptuous behavior in its presence, but no such imprisonment shall extend beyond twenty-four hours at one time, unless the person shall persist in such disorderly or contemptuous behavior.

Support

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Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Nebraska & Amending the Nebraska Constitution

In order to qualify the proposed constitutional amendment, supporters were required to collect valid signatures totaling a minimum of 10 percent of registered voters by July 4, 2014. The exact number was based on the number of registered voters on that day. This amounted to at least 125,000 valid signatures. In addition, signatures needed to be collected from five percent of the registered voters in 38 of the 93 Nebraska counties.

Secretary of State John Gale (R) said that only one initiative for 2014 - the Minimum Wage Increase Initiative - submitted signatures.

See also

Suggest a link

• 2014 ballot measures
• Nebraska 2014 ballot measures
• Laws governing the initiative process in Nebraska

External links

• Nebraska Secretary of State: 2014 election
• Full text and petition form for Legislative Session Days Initiative